Gabriel Licina

Gabriel Licina

Aug 20, 2014

Group 6 Copy 10,821
7

Initial Success!

Hi everyone! We have results!

2 weeks into the A2 administration and we have ERG readings with excitation in the eye at 950nm :)  This is really exciting news. We're hoping that by the next few weeks, we will move even further into the NIR. 

I'll attach a sampling of the data here and discuss what we are seeing. I realize that the info is pretty noisy, but a lot of that has to do with the device being so sensitive that it reads even the slightest movement of the eye as well as the flashes of the LEDs. We are working on setting up an appointment with an ophthalmologist by the end of the study so that we can get at least a few nice, professional looking readings.


As you can see, there is a lot of artifact noise, even in the dark. However, due to the irregularity and low amplitude of it, it will be easy to filter out. If you remember, the 850nm was a flash that we could see even before the dietary shifts. However, you can clearly see that the 950nm flashes are now visible to this subject.

We noticed that each reading at the 950nm level has a double peak. We believe that this is due to depolarization-depolarization activity, but that is conjecture.

We're going to continue taking readings and work on filtering out the noise so that we can have the best data possible. Also, now that we have some hard data, we feel comfortable adding a little anecdotal recordings from the test journals. 

Thank you for sticking with us, it's all panning out now. I hope you guys are excited as we are :D


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7 comments

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  • Brad Prod
    Brad Prod
    Excellent post, Its really awesome article.
    Jan 12, 2019
  • Arkadiy Kukarkin
    Arkadiy Kukarkin
    What's the darkness adaptation period before the test? Time of day variation? Are you experiencing loss of sensitivity in the visible regions?
    Aug 22, 2014
  • Science for the Masses
    Science for the MassesResearcher
    The darkness adaption period is 4 minutes. We've found that Anything shorter than that, and we are still getting residual activity in the eye. We try to do the testing at the same time every day which is roughly around noon. No one has noticed any loss of vision or sensitivity since the administration of the A2.
    Aug 22, 2014
  • Chevez Ezaneh-Paul
    Chevez Ezaneh-Paul
    Wow this is impressive! Will this have any negative long term effects on colour perception as well as long term retention of near-IR sensitivity? Also really curious to understand how we would perceive extended wavelengths. Would it be as an entirely new colour? Or would we just see it as another layer of grayscaled light similar to how we interpret information from our rod cells? All things granted I don't know that I would personally like to see IR simply because of how it would affect contrast. It would however be very enriching to be able to see UV through a fourth cone cell. My reasoning for this is that nature caters much more to UV than IR. Think of all the hidden patterns of colors that plants and birds have, made visible thanks to ultraviolet. Keep up the good work and hopefully you continue to push into the longer wavelengths, i'm looking forward to learning about the results!
    Aug 21, 2014
  • Denny Luan
    Denny LuanBacker
    Would be interesting to see images of the charts before hand!
    Aug 21, 2014
  • Science for the Masses
    Science for the MassesResearcher
    We'll be adding more data soon. We just got really excited and decided to share.
    Aug 21, 2014
  • Denny Luan
    Denny LuanBacker
    I can understand that! Welcome to science happening in real-time :)
    Aug 21, 2014
  • David Marcus
    David Marcus
    Exciting project! Thanks for taking it on. I have been doing optics and making optical filters for 30 years. I do know that it is not trivial to isolate narrow bands of near IR light (800-2500 nm is near IR) to high levels of purity. I have looked through many near IR bandpass filters and saw light through them, and it was just visible wavelengths leaking through the blocking regions of the filter. I presume that you have worked all of this out. I believe that your signal-noise ratio (near IR wavelength vs. visible background) for filtering should be 10^6 or more. If you have questions, feel free to email me: David Marcus, Custom Scientific, Inc., optics@customscientific.com . Thanks for doing it and good luck!
    Aug 21, 2014
  • Derek J. White
    Derek J. White
    I know they are doing gene therapy color blindness correction in mice. Do humans possess the necessary parts to see further than we can now (with potential therapies?) Sorry, this question may not be asked very well.
    Aug 21, 2014
  • Gabriel Licina
    Gabriel LicinaResearcher
    This is something that we have discussed, and it's a hard question to answer. The mechanisms for utilizing A2 and for colour blindness are pretty different. To do this trick gentically, you would need to change the way our body processes vitaminA1 and make it less active than how we process A2. This would have ramifications on your entire body system. Alternatively you could make it so that the eyes specifically use A2 instead of any A analog they get. This would again, require a complete alteration of how the eye works. It's a toughy, but it is something we are interested in looking at.
    Aug 21, 2014
  • Joachim Blaabjerg
    Joachim BlaabjergBacker
    Woo, it's working! Very cool! Do you have any expectations regarding the degree to which the near-IR light will be subjectively visible outside of lab conditions at the end of this? Is there enough energy in that part of the spectrum to make this practically useful for individuals in any way?
    Aug 20, 2014
  • Gabriel Licina
    Gabriel LicinaResearcher
    We're hoping that there will be some changes in colour and light perception outside of the lab, but there's just no way to properly tell until we go a little while longer on this. I think getting up into the 1070 range is when things might get interesting....
    Aug 21, 2014
  • aloister
    aloister
    The problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4zSRkBMPng
    Aug 21, 2014

About This Project

We have developed a protocol to augment human sight to see into the near infrared range through human formation of porphyropsin, the protein complex which grants infrared vision to freshwater fish.

Retinal, or Vitamin A (A1), which is found bound to opsin proteins is a keystone of the visual pathway. The cone cells are granted sharp color vision by the complex photopsin. The rod cells which provide us with night vision and recognition of movement do so utilizing rhodopsin. Both of the complexes consist of a type of protein bound to retinal. Porphyropsin differs from this in that it doesn't use retinal, but rather a derivation called 3,4-dehydroretinol, or Vitamin A2 (A2).

The human body is fully capable of metabolizing and using A2; unfortunately the proteins which allow for transport through cell membranes have nearly 4 times the affinity for A1 compared to A2. We theorize that this can be overcome through a stringent Vitamin A1 restricted diet, supplemented with Vitamin A2.

Blast off!

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