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Bioengineered corneas, and implants reversing congenital blindness, have helped transform the future of eye surgery this year.
This man is blind. But now, he can see the outline of a banana, and pick it out of a fruit bowl.He's one of three people who've been given a retinal implant, as part of a trial at the University Eye Hospital in Tuebingen, Germany.
The implant is a three millimeter chip packed with more than one thousand light sensors. Each sensor sends an electrical signal to nerve cells, which are then processed by the brain.
For sufferers of impaired vision, the success of the trial is very encouraging.
Jonathan Abro, Retinitis Pigmentosa Sufferer, said, "For somebody to say, 'people who have lost all or most of their vision are able to distinguish shapes and are learning to see something again that's very exciting."
Over in Sweden, eye surgeons are trying to perfect a different procedure to treat corneal blindness.
Corneas are fragile and easily harmed by injury, malnutrition or infection. Dr. May Griffith, Professor of Lingkoping University, Sweden, said, "In children it's malnutrition, disease. In grown-ups simply aging would do this. So, In general human corneas which are donated after death are used to replace the damaged or diseased cornea. However, there is a worldwide shortage of these corneas."
By inserting an artificial cornea into the eye, scientists hope to coax natural cell growth, and restore a patient's vision.
The procedure has been tested in a first stage study of 10 patients at Sweden's Linkoping University.
However, many larger studies need to be carried out before the technique can be widely adopted.
參考譯文：
今年，通過生物工程手段制成用來治療先天性盲的角膜和植入體被成功應用到了眼科手術中。
有一名盲人患者，通過該手術已能可以看清香蕉輪廓并將之由水果盤取出。他是三名接受視網膜植入患者中的一位，這是德國圖賓根大學實驗研究的一部分。
該植入體是一個直徑3mm，布由1000多個光傳感器的芯片。每個芯片將電子信號傳至神經細胞，然后大腦進一步加工處理該信號。
該實驗研究的成功給視力下降患者帶來了福音。
喬納斯.阿波羅，他是一名色素性視網膜炎患者，說，“對于那些失去其全部或大部分視力的人來說，若是能夠識別分辨出物體形狀并重新看見身邊的事物，將是非常鼓舞振奮人心的事。”
在瑞典，眼科醫生正在嘗試以一種不同的方法治療角膜患者。
角膜非常的脆弱，很容易創傷、營養不良或感染而損壞。瑞典Lingkopin大學教授梅.格里菲斯說，“兒童主要是因為營養不良或疾病， 而成人主要是年齡使然。現實中通常會用一些人死后捐贈的角膜來替換那些損壞或染疾的角膜，但其數量在全世界范圍都是極其匱乏的。”
科學家希望通過將人造角膜植入眼睛，誘導那些本體細胞生長，從而恢復患者視力。
該方法已于瑞典Linkoping大學通過了第一階段的研究，共有10名患者參與該實驗過程。
然而，在將該技術廣泛應用之前，仍需做大量深入的研究實驗。
