Research & Funding

A federally funded research and development program.

BioLight Engineering's development program is supported by the National Institutes of Health through the Small Business Innovation Research program, with the National Eye Institute as the awarding institute, in collaboration with the University of Illinois Chicago.

Funding milestones

NIH SBIR record.

BioLight Engineering's development program is supported by the National Institutes of Health through the Small Business Innovation Research program, with the National Eye Institute as the awarding institute, in collaboration with the University of Illinois Chicago.

SBIR Phase I · 2018

A Portable Ultra-Widefield Fundus Camera for Nonmydriatic Examination of Retinopathy of Prematurity

National Institutes of Health / National Eye Institute · R43 EY028786

Established the feasibility of our patented trans-pars-planar illumination for ultra-widefield, non-mydriatic fundus photography of the pediatric retina, delivering illumination through the pars plana so that the full pupil is available for imaging.

SBIR Phase II · 2020

A Portable Ultra-Widefield Fundus Camera for Nonmydriatic Examination of Retinopathy of Prematurity

National Institutes of Health / National Eye Institute · R44 EY028786

Advanced the approach into working prototypes, including a dedicated handheld camera and a smartphone-based configuration, and validated ultra-widefield imaging of the retina to the ora serrata.

SBIR Phase II · 2026

A Low-Cost, Ultra-Widefield, Nonmydriatic Retinal Imager for Pediatric Eye Care and ROP Screening

National Institutes of Health / National Eye Institute · R44 EY039153

Supports development of clinical-grade systems, multi-center clinical evaluation with academic medical center partners, and preparation of a regulatory submission.

Project details for each award are available through the NIH RePORTER database.

This work is supported by the National Institutes of Health. The content of this website is solely the responsibility of BioLight Engineering LLC and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Publications

Selected publications.

Peer-reviewed research from the development program and its collaborators.

Publication

Trans-pars-planar illumination enables a 200° ultra-wide field pediatric fundus camera for easy examination of the retina

Toslak D, Chau F, Erol MK, Liu C, Chan RVP, Son T, Yao X. Biomedical Optics Express 11(1), 68–76 (2020).

Publication

Affordable ultra-widefield smartphone PedCam for comprehensive pediatric retinal examination

Ebrahimi B, et al.; Chan RVP, Yao X. Biomedical Optics Express 15(11), 6171–6182 (2024).

Publication

Assessing spectral effectiveness in color fundus photography for deep learning classification of retinopathy of prematurity

Ebrahimi B, Le D, Abtahi M, Dadzie AK, Rossi A, Rahimi M, Son T, Ostmo S, Campbell JP, Chan RVP, Yao X. Journal of Biomedical Optics 29(7), 076001 (2024).

Publication

Light color efficiency-balanced trans-palpebral illumination for widefield fundus photography of the retina and choroid

Son T, Ma J, Toslak D, Rossi A, Kim H, Chan RVP, Yao X. Scientific Reports 12, 13850 (2022).

Publication

Portable ultra-widefield fundus camera for multispectral imaging of the retina and choroid

Toslak D, Son T, Erol MK, Kim H, Kim T-H, Chan RVP, Yao X. Biomedical Optics Express 11(11), 6281–6292 (2020).

Questions about our research program?

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