Multi-electrode Electroretinography (meERG)

Our laboratory develops novel technologies to diagnose and monitor progressive eye disease. One example is a Contact Lens Electrode Array (CLEAr Lens), which records voltage signals from the eye at 33 locations across the cornea simultaneously. These signals can be interpreted to reveal small areas of damage to the retina, as in early-stage glaucoma. The top image shows the layout of recording electrodes in the CLEAr Lens when it is placed on the eye. When a flash of light is presented to the eye, the retina responds by producing very small voltage signals, which are sensed by the electrodes of the CLEAr Lens. The middle image shows a set of representative signals. These signals are analyzed to produce a color map of corneal voltages, as in the bottom image. These voltage maps can be interpreted to reveal small areas of damage to the retina that would go undetected by other diagnostic technologies. This is the first time that these corneal voltage maps have been available for analysis; for over 100 years, the cornea was considered to be of uniform voltage. These spatial color maps represent a fundamentally new source of information about the health of the eye.