ReVision Implant (Belgium, EU)
Belgian cortical visual prosthesis company (Leuven) developing “Occular” — a deep, intracortical V1 implant with >1,000 electrodes targeting grayscale vision at >1,000 pixels. The most near-term EU cortical clinical programme (FIH approved, Q3 2026).
Key facts
- Co-founders: Frederik Ceyssens, PhD (CEO — ex-KU Leuven flexible-electrode researcher, worked with neurosurgeon Bart Nuttin) and Prof. Peter Janssen (KU Leuven neuroscientist; also coordinates EU HyperStim project).
- Funding: €4M round May 2026 (private investors; existing + new backers); EIC “FlairVision” grant €2.4M; imec.istart and Plug & Play incubators; investing in in-house cleanroom.1
- Regulatory:
- FDA Breakthrough Device Designation — awarded March 2026.2 Grants: early feedback on regulatory roadmap, data, clinical trial protocols; access to FDA Total Product Life-Cycle Advisory Program (TAP) Pilot. Note: only ~160 devices globally received Breakthrough status in all of 2025.
- Also planning EU launch; FDA pre-submission ongoing.
- Clinical timeline (as of March 2026):
- October 2026 — first short-term intra-operative clinical test during scheduled brain surgery (epilepsy resection, TTK Budapest).
- Summer 2027 — early-stage human trials in blind volunteers (subject to regulatory approvals).2
- Preclinical: >2 years of long-term animal studies completed.
- Target population: ~650,000 people with untreatable blindness in US + EU combined (company estimate); globally tens of millions with severe vision loss.
Occular (the device)
- Intracortical electrode arrays targeting primary visual cortex (V1), inserted up to a few cm deep (the human visual cortex is buried up to ~4 cm) — deeper than surface devices like Orion/ICVP, exploiting Martin Bak’s finding that deeper stimulation gives >5x better resolution, in tens of µA vs mA.
- >1,000 electrodes, ultra-flexible (minimal scarring), patented resorbable-coating insertion method; +15 years lifetime in accelerated aging tests; “virtual electrodes” to boost resolution.
- Target visual function: grayscale vision >1,000 pixels; success by 2030 = restoring at least 3/20 vision and launching pivotal trials.
- Strategy (Ceyssens): “performance trumps invasiveness” — universal solution for any blindness cause; brain directly bypasses eye and optic nerve.
Pathway
Long-term monkey preclinical data (Janssen lab, KU Leuven: biocompatibility + eye-tracking efficacy); next: acute intra-operative test during epilepsy resection (TTK Budapest, Hungary — Wittner/Fiáth); longer-term blind-volunteer trial with Prof. Eduardo Fernandez (Spain, UMH Elche); wireless prototype in development.
Related pages
- phosphoenix — Dutch EU cortical rival (LGN)
- cortical-visual-prosthesis, visual-prosthesis — context
- cortical-visual-prosthesis-companies — schema
- pieter-roelfsema — related science (1024-channel macaque proof)
References
- Health Tech World (2026-05-26): “ReVision Implant secures €4 million funding”.
- Bionic Vision spotlight: Ceyssens interview (2025); revision-implant.com.
- Johnson O. “FDA grants breakthrough device designation to ReVision Implant visual cortex prosthesis.” Med-Tech Insights. March 9, 2026. https://med-techinsights.com/2026/03/09/fda-grants-breakthrough-device-designation-to-revision-implant-visual-cortex-prosthesis/