Science Corp. Beats Neuralink With Its Prosthetic Eye

Max Hodak, the founder of Science Corp., has raised $160 million in total funding, putting it second only to Elon Musk’s Neuralink, six years after co-founding the company and just a year after dumping Musk, Futurism reported.

Photo Insert: The company's major project is the Science Eye.

Hodak left Neuralink last year amid the long-delayed human trials and the hype that Musk inordinately dishes out and launched Science Corp. to pursue similar but distinct work.

Its major project is the Science Eye. It’s basically an attempt at a prosthetic eye for blind people, but unlike any that have come before because it combines gene editing to the optic nerve with a special implant, Futurism reported.

The Science Eye still in animal trials, but its potential is clearly wooing investors. Max Hodak says the Science Eye has two parts: a simple gene therapy to add a protein to the cells of the optic nerve which makes them light sensitive, and a thin-film microLED display that is laid over the retina to drive the altered cells.

“The protein we deliver isn't sensitive to ordinary daylight, only the flexible microLEDs we implant. These parts together should allow the restoration of vision in patients who have lost the photoreceptor cells, like rods and cones, resulting in blindness,” Hodak explained.

“The technical approach we're developing is extremely different from what Neuralink was doing. Ultimately, though, our vision goes well beyond just clinical visual prostheses. But we want to let ambition grow with success rather than making big statements about things we may or may not do in the future at this point. Right now, we're just focused on getting our first product into patients,” Hodak stressed.

Asked if he has talked to Elon Musk again, his answer was an emphatic “No.”

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