José-Alain Sahel is a Frenchophthalmologist and scientist. He is currently the chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of PittsburghSchool of Medicine, director of the UPMC Vision Institute, and the Eye and Ear Foundation Chair of Ophthalmology. Dr. Sahel previously led the Vision Institute (French: Institut de la Vision) in Paris, a research center associated with one of the oldest eye hospitals of Europe - Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital in Paris, founded in 1260. He is a pioneer in the field of artificial retina and eye regenerative therapies.[1] He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
Biography
José-Alain Sahel held the chair of the Professor of Ophthalmology at the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris and the Professor of Biomedical Sciences (Cumberlege Chair) at University College London.[2] He performed a research fellowship at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School with Professor Daniel. M. Albert and a visiting scholarship at Harvard Biological Laboratories with Professor John. E. Dowling.[3]
Sahel was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg in 1988.[4] He was appointed Chairman of a Department of Ophthalmology at the Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital in 2001 and led that Department till 2020[5]. During his time at the department, a new department of Vitreo-Retinal Diseases at the Rothschild Ophthalmology Foundation was established and he was chair from 2001 to 2020. He joined Sorbonne Université (former Pierre and Marie Curie University Medical School) in 2002[6]. He held the Cumberlege Chair of Biomedical Sciences at the Institute of Ophthalmology-University College London from 2001 to 2017[7].
José Sahel created the Institut de la Vision (Sorbonne Université-Inserm, CNRS), and led it from its opening in 2008 until 2021. He directed a Clinical Investigation Center in Ophthalmology (2004-2021),the National Reference Center on Inherited Retinal Diseases (2006-2020), the Fondation Voir et Entendre, since 2022,[8] the Laboratory of Excellence LIFESENSES selected and funded by the Investissements d’Avenir National Program (2011-2020)[9], the Carnot Institute on Seeing and Hearing promoting technology transfer in sensory systems research (2006-2024) and the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire FOReSIGHT (2019-2023)[10]. This integrative center for multidisciplinary basic, clinical and industrial research that functions in synergy with the Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital and Clinical Investigation Center allowed translation of scientific discoveries to the clinic.
He holds an Honoris Causa Doctorate from the University of Geneva and is an elected member of the following organizations: the European Academy of Ophthalmology (2006)[11], the Academia Ophthalmologia Internationalis (2007)[12], the Academy of Sciences-Institut de France (2007)[13], the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2014)[14], the National Academy of Technologies of France (2015)[15], the National Academy of Surgery of France (2020)[16], the Association of American Physicians (2018)[17], the American Ophthalmology Society (2021, induction in 2022) and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2024).
In October 2016, José-Alain Sahel was hired by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, the director of the UPMC Vision Institute, and the Eye and Ear Foundation Chair of Ophthalmology.[18] The UPMC Vision Institute headquarters is housed in the Mercy Pavilion and opened in May 2023.[19] In this facility, clinicians and researchers are brought together under one roof, enabling collaboration and integregration of research into patient care. In addition to being the chairperson of the University of Pittsburgh Ophthalmology Department, José-Alain practices as a physician specializing in retina and vitreous disease, with a focus on inherited retinal degenerations and age-related macular degeneration.
Research
José-Alain 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.[20] He has continued to work to understand and prevent vision loss from photoreceptor cell degeneration and developing vision restoration strategies. His clinical research works closely with experimental research such as information processing, genetic therapeutic research including modeling, evidence of pre-clinical concepts, technological developments in imaging and surgery. His research has conducted to clinical trials on retinal conditions, gene therapy, retinal prothesis, and optogenetics.[21]
His research contributed to demonstrate that rod photoreceptors produce a protein that rescues cone photoreceptors, thereby maintaining light-adapted and high-resolution vision. His research team along with S. Mohand-Said and Thierry Léveillard, identified the underlying signal: Rod-derieved Cone Viability Factor or RdCVF[23] and determined its mechanisms of action as associated with the stimulation of aerobic glycolysis and antioxidant.[24]
Together with M. Fink (Institut Langevin), Dr. Sahel led a ERC-Synergy grant (2014-2021) aiming at developing novel technologies for morpho-functional imaging of the visual system. He founded StreetLab, a platform dedicated to the development of methods and technologies to assess the impact in real-life of vision impairment and vision restoration[25]
Frasson, M; Sahel, JA; Fabre, M; Simonutti, M; Dreyfus, H; Picaud, S (Oct 1999). "Retinitis pigmentosa: rod photoreceptor rescue by a calcium-channel blocker in the rd mouse". Nat Med. 5 (10): 1183–7. doi:10.1038/13508. PMID10502823. S2CID8345111.
Sahel, JA., Boulanger-Scemama, E., Pagot, C. et al.: Partial recovery of visual function in a blind patient after optogenetic therapy. Nat Med 27, 1223–1229 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01351-4.
