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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.
参考译文：
今年，通过生物工程手段制成用来治疗先天性盲的角膜和植入体被成功应用到了眼科手术中。
有一名盲人患者，通过该手术已能可以看清香蕉轮廓并将之由水果盘取出。他是三名接受视网膜植入患者中的一位，这是德国图宾根大学实验研究的一部分。
该植入体是一个直径3mm，布由1000多个光传感器的芯片。每个芯片将电子信号传至神经细胞，然后大脑进一步加工处理该信号。
该实验研究的成功给视力下降患者带来了福音。
乔纳斯.阿波罗，他是一名色素性视网膜炎患者，说，“对于那些失去其全部或大部分视力的人来说，若是能够识别分辨出物体形状并重新看见身边的事物，将是非常鼓舞振奋人心的事。”
在瑞典，眼科医生正在尝试以一种不同的方法治疗角膜患者。
角膜非常的脆弱，很容易创伤、营养不良或感染而损坏。瑞典Lingkopin大学教授梅.格里菲斯说，“儿童主要是因为营养不良或疾病， 而成人主要是年龄使然。现实中通常会用一些人死后捐赠的角膜来替换那些损坏或染疾的角膜，但其数量在全世界范围都是极其匮乏的。”
科学家希望通过将人造角膜植入眼睛，诱导那些本体细胞生长，从而恢复患者视力。
该方法已于瑞典Linkoping大学通过了第一阶段的研究，共有10名患者参与该实验过程。
然而，在将该技术广泛应用之前，仍需做大量深入的研究实验。
