José-Alain Sahel1955—

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. 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.

Sahel was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg in 1988. He was later appointed Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital in 2001 and led that Department till 2020. During his time at the Department, a new Department of Vitreo-Retinal Diseases at the Rothschild Ophthalmology Foundation was established, where he was Chair from 2001 to 2020. He joined Sorbonne Université (former Pierre and Marie Curie University Medical School) in 2002. He held the Cumberlege Chair of Biomedical Sciences at the Institute of Ophthalmology-University College London from 2001 to 2017.

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, the Laboratory of Excellence LIFESENSES selected and funded by the Investissements d'Avenir National Program (2011-2020), the Carnot Institute on Seeing and Hearing promoting technology transfer in sensory systems research (2006-2024), and the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire FOReSIGHT (2019-2023). 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), the Academia Ophthalmologia Internationalis (2007), the Academy of Sciences-Institut de France (2007), the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2014), the National Academy of Technologies of France (2015), the National Academy of Surgery of France (2020), the Association of American Physicians (2018), the American Ophthalmology Society (2021, induction in 2022), and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2024).

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. 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, and technological developments in imaging and surgery. He has conducted clinical trials on retinal conditions, gene therapy, retinal prothesis, and optogenetics.

Together with his team, Sahel works on the conception, development, and evaluation of treatments for retinal diseases, with a focus on genetic rod-cone dystrophies, including neuroprotection, stem cells, gene therapy, pharmacology, and artificial retina. He was the first to hypothesize and demonstrate that rod photoreceptors produce a protein that rescues cone photoreceptors, thereby maintaining light-adapted and high-resolution vision. Sahel's research team (with S. Mohand-Said and Thierry Léveillard) identified the underlying signal: Rod-derived Cone Viability Factor (RdCVF), and determined its mechanisms of action as associated with the stimulation of aerobic glycolysis and antioxidant.

Utilizing a variety of molecular and functional genomics approaches, Sahel's group aims to identify novel disease-causing genes for retinal degenerations. Along with the research on developmental biology, functional genomics, physiology and therapeutics, his team (with M. Paques, S. Mohand-Said and I. Audo) conducts research on genotype-phenotype correlations with high resolution in vivo non-invasive high-resolution retinal imaging techniques (optical coherence tomography and adaptive optics) aiming at refining the characterization of functional deficits, discovering of reproducible biomarkers, and identifying patients eligible for clinical application of innovative therapies.

Sahel chaired (2006-2020) the Clinical Investigation Center at the National Eye Hospital des Quinze-Vingst in Paris. One of his most valued achievements is the constitution (with Isabelle Audo and Saddek Mohand-Said) and follow-up of one of the largest cohort of patients with inherited retinal degenerative diseases. Currently, more than 9,000 patients are fully phenotyped and half of them are genotyped, allowing for better assessment of disease risk and prognosis, prediction of optimal therapy, diagnostic criteria, etc. Together with M.

Awards

• 2026 ARVO Proctor Medal
• The 2024 Wolf Prize in Medicine, The Wolf Foundation (with Botond Roska)
• The EURORDIS 2024 Black Pearl Scientific Award
• The Michaelson Award and Lecture, The Macula Society, 2024
• Elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, 2023
• Appointed to the French Presidential Council for Science, 2023

The International Prize in Translational Neuroscience -The Reemtsma Stiftung- Max Planck Gesellschaft (with Botond Roska), 2023

Promoted to Commander in the National Order of Merit of France and appointed to the Council of The National Order of Merit, 2023

Corinne Kirchner Research Award from the American Foundation for the Blind, 2023

The Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award in Translational Neuroscience (FENS), 2022

Breakthrough of the Year in the Life Sciences category-Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin, Germany, 2021

• Gold Fellow ARVO, 2020
• Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) Llura Liggett Gund Award, 2015
• The Institut de France's Foundation NRJ Grand Prix scientifique, 2006