# Benefit Assessment Tools for Substitute Prosthetic Regenerative and Ultra-Low Vision

> **NIH NIH R01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $371,421

## Abstract

Summary 
Restoring vision to the blind has been an age-old dream, but it took an avalanche of biomedical research and 
development over the last few decades to begin turning this dream into reality.  In recent years the potential of saving 
and restoring sight has been demonstrated in vitro, in animal models, and in some cases even in human patients.  With 
the advent of early clinical trials for these therapies, often primarily aimed at safety and enrolling patients with profound 
vision loss, there is a growing need for vision assessments that not only can measure rudimentary vision, but reliably 
demonstrate small changes.  Ideally these measures should also demonstrate efficacy in real-world situations, and 
include the use of vision for tasks such as eye-hand coordination, orientation, and mobility. 
In our laboratory we have demonstrated that the properties of rudimentary “native” vision can be assessed with a 
visual functioning questionnaire specifically designed for ultra-low vision, the ULV-VFQ, and with a set of standardized 
visual activities of daily living, the ULV-ADL.  Moreover, we demonstrated that the performance of users of the Argus II 
retinal prosthesis system and the BrainPort vision substitution device is very similar to that of individuals with native 
ULV. 
This application lays out a program to validate the previously completed assessments in a larger ULV population 
(Aim 1), to develop a range of additional assessments (Aim 2), to translate a subset of the visual activities used in these 
assessments to real-world situations and minimize redundancies (Aim 3), and to assess the similarity in performance 
between individuals with native ULV and recipients of the Argus II, BrainPort, and other sight-restoring treatments (Aim 
4).  The new assessments under Aim 2 will cover instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and orientation & mobility 
(O&M), and all assessments will cover both static and dynamic scenarios.  Our long-term collaborator Dr. Duane 
Geruschat will act as a consultant in the design and evaluation of these assess.ements. 
Human subjects testing will be carried out at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute and the Chicago Lighthouse, 
which not only counts a substantial ULV population among its employees and clients, but also a number of BrainPort 
users.  Investigators at both sites have extensive research experience with this population.  O&M scenarios under Aim 2 
will be realized in virtual reality with the assistance of our partners at Balti Virtual.  The resulting assessments promise to 
not only have a major impact on future clinical trials of sight-restoring therapies, but also lay the foundation to 
rehabilitation approaches for recipients of such therapies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9942458
- **Project number:** 5R01EY028452-04
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Gislin Dagnelie
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $371,421
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-30 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9942458

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9942458, Benefit Assessment Tools for Substitute Prosthetic Regenerative and Ultra-Low Vision (5R01EY028452-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9942458. Licensed CC0.

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