Team
The Stanford Artificial Retina Project is a highly collaborative effort currently involving the Chichilnisky lab, three electrical engineering faculty and their labs, a retinal surgeon, and several visiting collaborators and consultants.
E.J. Chichilnisky, PhD
John R. Adler Professor of Neurosurgery
Professor of Ophthalmology Professor of Electrical Engineering
Dr. Chichilnisky trained in mathematics and neuroscience at Princeton and Stanford Universities, and began his independent research career at the Salk Institute. He joined the faculty at Stanford in 2013. The goal of his research is to understand how the neural circuitry of the retina encodes visual information, and to use this knowledge in the development of artificial retinas for treating incurable blindness. His lab is now entirely devoted to the mission of the Artificial Retina Project.
Dante Muratore, PhD
Assistant Professor, Bioelectronics Section, TU Delft
Dr. Muratore is an assistant professor in the Bioelectronics Section at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, where he leads the Smart Brain Interfaces group. His group investigates hardware and system solutions for high-bandwidth brain-machine interfaces that can interact with the nervous system at natural resolution. They contribute solutions for massively parallel bidirectional interfaces, on-chip neural signal processing, and wireless power and data transfer. His role in the Artificial Retina Project is to design the circuits and systems needed for the implantable neural interface.
Subhasish Mitra, PhD
Professor of Electrical Engineering Professor of Computer Science
Dr. Mitra's research focuses on designing robust computer systems and information appliances. It covers various aspects of very-large-scale integration design and testing, computer-aided design, computer architecture and design in future nanotechnologies. His role in the Artificial Retina Project includes design of novel digital circuits and algorithms to process recorded neural signals in a way that permits the device to effectively control, or “program”, the activity of neurons.
Ruwan Silva, MD, MPhil
Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology
Dr. Silva is a board certified and fellowship trained vitreoretinal surgeon in the department of ophthalmology at Stanford University Medical Center. His clinical practice focuses mainly on macular degeneration and retinal vascular disease. Surgically, he specializes in diseases of the vitreous and retina. His role in the Artificial Retina Project includes development of surgical strategies and implantation technology necessary to create a faithful, high-fidelity electrical connection between the implant and the neural circuitry of the retina.
Marty Breidenbach
Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Stanford University
Dr. Breidenbach’s research interests include e+e- colliding beam physics: R&D for a new detector for NLC, with a particular interest in complete detector optimization and Si-W electromagnetic calorimeters.
Greg Horwitz, PhD
Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington
Chief of the Neuroscience Division, Washington National Primate Research Center
Dr. Horwitz’s research focuses on the representation of visual images in the cerebral cortex. His role in the Artificial Retina Project is to design and implement psychophysical and electrophysiological assays for in vivo implant function.
