Project Description

Movies for Mice (and people) by Striata Technologies

Becoming blind is a devastating fate. Luckily, today researchers are developing new treatments for blindness. This research is done mostly with mice which have the same types of blindness that can be found in humans. In order to help with this research we have developed a virtual reality cinema for mice, to help researchers heal blindness.
Using animals comes with a serious problem: How does one ask the animal how well it can see? Knowing this is crucial for scientific progress. Has treatment A improved the vision of my mouse? Or is it better to pursue treatment B? When this question can be answered for mice, then the most promising treatment strategies can be put forward to clinical trials for the benefit of patients.

When a mouse is inside our newly developed virtual reality cinema, our algorithms detect and analyze the reaction of the mouse when we present a movie. By adjusting the movie, the mouse’s visual abilities – and therefore the success of the treatment – can be quickly determined.
In contrast to similar solutions that exist on the market, our fully-automated approach eliminates the need for tedious and error-prone analysis of the animal’s behavior by hand. This saves time and personnel resources, and it leads to more objective and reliable results.

www.striata-tech.com
info@striata-tech.com