SAHEL José-Alain

José-Alain Sahel, MD, is Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology,
Eye & Ear Foundation Endowed Chair University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Adjunct
Professor of Robotics and Bioengineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. He is an
exceptional Class Professor of Ophthalmology at Sorbonne Université and was the Founding Director
of The Vision Institute (Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS) Paris, France (till 31 December 2020).
He headed the French National Reference Center for Rare Retinal Dystrophies and the Paris
Ophthalmology Clinical Investigation Center (2006- 2020), overseeing more than 80 clinical trials,
some of them within the most advanced areas of biomedical technologies (retinal implants, gene
therapy, stem cell therapy, optogenetics).

Dr. Sahel is a clinician-scientist conducting research on vision restoration focusing on cellular
and molecular mechanisms underlying retinal degeneration, and development of treatments for
currently untreatable retinal diseases. He co-authored over 700 peer-reviewed articles and 40
patents. He was a founder of Fovea pharmaceuticals, and is a scientific co-founder of StreetLab
(visual adaptation and rehabilitation), GenSight Biologics (gene therapy) and Pixium Vision
(artificial retina), among other biotech companies. Dr. Sahel is recipient of numerous awards
including the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) Trustee Award, Alcon Research Institute Award for
Excellence in Vision Research, Grand Prix NRJ- Neurosciences-Institut de France, Foundation
Fighting Blindness Llura Liggett Gund Award, Charpak- Dubousset Award, Médaille Grand Vermeil,
Ville de Paris, 2021 Breakthrough in the Life Sciences – Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin, Germany
and 2022 Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award for Translational Neuroscience. He was elected
to the: Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, Académie des Sciences- Institut de France, German
National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, National Academy of Technologies of France, National
Academy of Surgery of France, Association of American Physicians and American Ophthalmology
Society. Dr. Sahel is Honoris Causa doctorate of University of Geneva and held the Technological
Innovation Chair at the Collège de France (2015-2016). He is a member of several Editorial
ntific Advisory Boards, including Science Translational Medicine.