The Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Detroit Medical Center have established the Ligon Research Center of Vision, a multidisciplinary center that will explore new technology that may help provide sight to the blind.

The center was made possible through a $5 million contribution by Robert Ligon, owner of an auto supply company. (See story in alum notes.) Ligon, an engineer, wished to create an ongoing legacy to benefit mankind and believed providing sight to the blind through the marriage of technology and biology was an achievable goal worthy of his support.

The Ligon Center, to be based in the Kresge Eye Institute, will bring together several disciplines, such as engineering, computer science, neurophysiology and retinal cell biology, to develop technological means of providing sight to the blind.

Researchers will strive to perfect electrodes that may be implanted into the eye to help stimulate cells in the inner retina to restore vision. This type of technology, which may be ready for human trials in about two years, could be used on patients suffering from macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary condition that causes visual cells in the retina to die permanently.

This is the only center in the world working on both retinal and cortical implants to correct and stimulate vision.