José-Alain Sahel, MD

José-Alain Sahel, MD, is the distinguished professor and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, the Eye and Ear Foundation endowed chair at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is the director of the UPMC Vision Institute, which he founded in May 2023. Dr. Sahel also founded the Vision Institute in Paris, France (2008). He received his medical degree from Paris University Medical School and trained at Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, and Harvard University.

Dr. Sahel is a clinician-scientist conducting vision restoration research focused on cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying retinal degeneration and the development of treatments for currently untreatable retinal diseases. His work has contributed to the understanding and prevention of vision loss from photoreceptor cell degeneration. He has conducted and overseen more than 80 clinical trials on retinal conditions, including first-in-human trials of artificial retina, gene therapy, and optogenetics.

Dr. Sahel has published more than 750 peer-reviewed articles, holds more than 90 patents, and has co-founded a dozen start-up companies. His memberships include the Académie des Sciences-Institut de France, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Association of American Physicians, the American Ophthalmology Society, Academia Europaea-Academy of Europe, and Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Sahel was appointed to the French Presidential Council for Science in 2023.

He is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the 2026 ARVO Proctor Medal and Lecture recipient, the promotion to Officer of the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, the 2023 International Prize in Translational Neuroscience from the Max Planck Society, and the 2024 Wolf Prize in Medicine