Development

Specifically, the EKFZ for Optogenetic Therapies aims at the development and implementation of four therapeutic approaches:
Team I: Optogenetic Hearing Restoration
Team II: Optogenetic Vision Restoration
Team III: Optogenetic Gastric Pacemaking
Team IV: Optogenetic Brain Computer Interfaces
These teams, with their expertise and the support of the five platforms, aim to develop therapeutic options for patients suffering from deafness, blindness, gastroparesis, or motor deficits. This includes the development of optogenetic cochlear implants and optogenetic tools for retinal stimulation, for gastric pacemakers, and brain-computer interfaces.

Implementation

The new optogenetic therapy procedure aims to develop an innovative method and bring it into clinical application within the next ten years.

Film about the Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies (© EKFS)

Audiovisual Art Project Lets You Experience

“Hearing with Light”

Experience

Göttingen researchers, under the leadership of the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), have collaborated with audiologists and artists from film and music to translate the sound experience of an optogenetic cochlear implant into image and sound. The music video artistically conveys the restoration of “hearing with light”, a technology that promises an improved hearing experience compared to classical cochlear implants.

The award-winning video artist Boris Seewald directed the video, while the internationally renowned composer Ralf Hildenbeutel is responsible for the music. Together, they created a work that combines research, technology, and emotion in an intense visual and auditory experience. The video is hand-animated and comprises about 2,500 individual images. You can find a making-of under News & Events.