SAHEL José-Alain

José-Alain Sahel, MD, trained at Paris University Medical School, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, and Harvard University. He is the Endowed Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine/UPMC. He founded the Vision Institute (Sorbonne Université-Inserm-CNRS) in Paris, France, and the Vision Institute at UPMC, opening in May 2023, two large interdisciplinary research centers. His work has contributed to the understanding and prevention of vision loss from photoreceptor cell degeneration. He conducted dozens of clinical trials on retinal conditions, including first in human trials of artificial retina, gene therapy, optogenetics. He co-authored over 700 peer-reviewed articles and 40 patents. He has cofounded companies developing innovative therapies for vision restoration. He is a member of the Académie des Sciences-Institut de France, the Académie des Technologies, the Association of American Physicians, the American Ophthalmology Society, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.HeholdsaHonorisCausaDoctoratefromtheUniversityofGenevaandheldtheChaired’Innovation Technologique Liliane Bettencourt at Collège de France (2015-2016). He received, among numerous awards the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) Trustee Award, the Alcon Research Institute Award for Excellence in Vision Research, the Grand Prix NRJ-Neurosciences-Institut de France, the 2015 Foundation Fighting Blindness Llura Liggett Gund lifetime achievement Award, the Médaille Grand Vermeil, Ville de Paris (2019), the 2021 Breakthrough in the Life Sciences – Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin, Germany, the 2022 Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award for Translational Neuroscience. And the 2023 International Prize for Translational Neuroscience from the Max Planck Society, Germany.