Aberdeen University spins out Sight Science

Spin out

Aberdeen University in Scotland has launched new spin-out company Sight Science Ltd to commercialise its Neuro-Eye Therapy (NeET), a technology that has been likened to physiotherapy for the eyes.

Ann Lewendon, from the university’s research and commercialisation arm and a director of Sight Science, said, “Following the enthusiastic responses from clinicians and major successes in patients who have used the therapy, Sight Science has been established to provide immediate access to those who can benefit from the therapy.”

Partial sight loss following stroke affects around 55,000 people across Europe each year. There are also many thousands of people who have suffered vision loss following a brain injury.

NeET is delivered via a home-based interactive laptop package. Patients have to respond to patterns shown on screen which stimulate areas of the brain that have been injured, causing sight loss.

Following therapy, patients have reported significant improvements in their sight, giving them increased navigational skills, helping them to carry out everyday activities such as crossing the road, as well as being able to concentrate for longer.

Arash Sahraie, Professor of Vision Sciences at the University of Aberdeen and founder of Sight Science, said, “Not too long ago, clinicians and scientists generally thought that the adult brain after brain injury could not be altered. But within the past decade, the concept of brain plasticity – when the brain can adapt to and compensate for its circumstance – has become well established. We now know that if we encourage a change in the brain, then changes are likely to take place.”

The basis of the Neuro-Eye Therapy is similar to the approach currently taken in rehabilitating movement and speech disorders after stroke. Patients using the computer programme are presented repeatedly and systematically with visual patterns that are designed to encourage plasticity within the injured brain.

Patients have reported an improvement in their sight as well as a range of other benefits, including being able to get about more easily, both inside and outside their homes, and finding reading much less of a struggle.

Sight Science patients are required to complete the computer based exercise, which takes around 30 minutes, once or twice daily over six months. While it is not possible to guarantee improvements in all cases, researchers say the majority of those who have used the therapy have found it so successful that they have extended its use.

For more about the therapy see http://www.sightscience.com/