Innovating to save lives and restore sight
A “bionic eye” is no longer the stuff of science fiction. At the University of New South Wales (UNSW) a viable vision prosthesis – which can detect light, darks and patterns -- will be ready for human implantation as early as 2012.
While the artificial eye still falls short of restoring full sight, the 98-channel device currently in development has the potential to create detailed patterned vision using signals fed through the retina, at the back of the eye.
The UNSW research team is part of the Bionic Vision Australia consortium which links world class scientists and clinicians, and is backed by the Australian Government’s recent $50 million commitment to the development of an advanced Australian “bionic eye”. Australia’s earlier “bionic ear”, or Cochlear implant, has restored hearing to hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
The UNSW bionic eye team is part of an innovative range of research and teaching programs which are forging new pathways for medicine, engineering and science. As populations age -- 25% of people in developed nations will be over 65 by 2030, compared to 2-3% a century ago – the potential for advanced medical devices and new drug therapies to combat the social exclusion of disability and chronic disease and disability is extraordinary.
UNSW’s Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, which hosts the bionic eye project, is the largest in Australia. Other UNSW projects include the development of coatings to prevent failures in stents – a major advance in treating heart patients -- and a new inhalable drug delivery system suitable for insulin which promises to do away with daily injections for the tens of millions of diabetics around the world.
Engineers and scientists working with nano-particles are also developing extraordinary treatments for major diseases. New drug-loaded “nanocarriers” can target tumours without affecting surrounding healthy tissue, promising relief from the debilitating side-effects of cancer treatment. Portable UNSW biosensors, originally developed to detect pesticides in water, are now being used for blood analysis for medical diagnostics, effectively bringing the lab to the patient.
The Australian Government's recent "Powering Ideas" policy prioritises innovation in Australian universities, enhancing the learning experience and expanding research opportunities 
for UNSW local and international students, ranging from coursework undergraduates to post-doctoral researchers. Increasingly, economists are recognising that innovation is directly linked to gains in productivity and competitiveness.
At the same time, UNSW is expanding links to Asia through the appointment of a new network of research fellows from the region's best universities. UNSW Dean of Medicine, Professor Peter Smith, said the rapidly rising standard of living in Asia meant health issues such as malnutrition were being replaced by challenges familiar to Western societies, such as ageing populations, cancer, new infectious diseases and obesity related complaints.
“Increasingly, we are seeing shared problems in health developing in our region. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to collaborate to address these challenges,” Professor Smith said.
As part of UNSW's expanded medical program is the $100 million Lowy Cancer Research Centre which opened earlier this year . The facility houses up to 400 researchers from UNSW and the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA), to become one of the largest dedicated cancer research centres in the Southern Hemisphere. The Director of UNSW’s Cancer Research Centre, Professor Philip Hogg, is internationally recognised for developing a dye which fastens onto dead or dying cancer cells and reveals whether cancer treatments are working just days into the course. He has also recently developed a new drug, known as GSAO, which works by “starving” tumours to death.
The Lowy Cancer Research Centre is part of a major $700 million campus re-development currently underway at UNSW. This is one of the most significant building programs in UNSW's 60 year history and will deliver new teaching, research and student accommodation and study facilities.
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