José Sahel, MD

José-Alain Sahel is a clinician-scientist conducting research in retinal degenerative diseases. His main interests focus on cellular & molecular mechanisms underlying retinal degeneration, and development of treatments for currently untreatable retinal diseases by resorting to pharmacological treatments, gene therapy, stem-cell therapy and retinal prosthesis. He’s Professor of Ophthalmology at Pierre & Marie Curie University Sorbonne Universities, Cumberlege Professor of Biomedical Sciences-University College London, and Founder and Director of The Vision Institute, Paris, France (18 principal investigators, over 250 staff). He chairs departments of Ophthalmology at the Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital and at the Rothschild Ophthalmology Foundation. Sahel coordinates the Paris-based Ophthalmology Clinical Investigation Center, overseeing more than 50 clinical trials, some within the most advanced areas of biomedical technologies, such as retinal implants and gene therapy. He heads the National Reference Center for Retinal Dystrophies and chairs a network of more than 90 European clinical trial centers on retinal diseases. He is Professor & Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology-University of Pittsburgh Medical School, and The Eye and Ear Foundation Endowed Chair. Sahel published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and co-authored more than 20 patents. He sits on several editorial boards, including Science Translational Medicine and The Journal of Clinical Investigation. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Foundation Fighting Blindness Trustee Award, Alcon Research Institute Award for Excellence in Vision Research, Grand Prix NRJ-Neurosciences-Institut de France, CNRS Medal of Innovation, Jules Gonin lecture, the Prize of the of the Retina Research Foundation, Llura Liggett Gund Award and others.