José-Alain Sahel, MD
Distinguished Professor and Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology
The Eye & Ear Foundation Endowed Chair
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Director, UPMC Vision Institute
Executive Vice President, UPMC Enterprises
Chief, UPMC Health Technology Advancement Program
Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology – Sorbonne Université
Founding Director of the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire FOReSIGHT (2019-2023)
Adjunct Professor of Robotics and Bioengineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Honorary Professor, Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London
Born in Algeria, educated in France and trained at the Universities of Paris, Strasbourg and Harvard, Dr. Sahel led several first-in-man vision restoration clinical trials (gene therapy, retinal prosthesis, optogenetics). He founded and directed (from 2008 to 2021) the Institut de la Vision in Paris, a site for basic research on vision and translational research on multiple conditions, including untreatable inherited and age-related ocular diseases. This Institute is ranked among the top worldwide and comprises 18 principal investigators and more than 300 members. It functions in synergy with the Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital and the Clinical Investigation Center, overseeing more than 80 clinical trials, some of them within the most advanced areas of biomedical technologies worldwide, including several first-in-human trials such as retinal implants and gene therapies.
Recruited to Pittsburgh in 2016, he is Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School/University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and The Eye and Ear Foundation Endowed Chair. He expanded the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, launching breakthrough trials and developing new models of care around a new translational Vision Institute (400,000 square feet, opened in April 2023) with a strong focus on vision restoration (optic nerve regeneration, prosthetics, neuroprotection, and optogenetics).
Dr. Sahel has published over 700 peer-reviewed articles and co-authored more than 90 patents. He co-founded a dozen start-up companies: Fovea Pharmaceuticals, GenSight Biologics, Pixium Vision, Sparing Vision, SharpEye, VegaVect, Avista, Tilak, Cilensee, Tenpoint and Netramind. In 2025, he was appointed Executive Vice President, UPMC Enterprises and Chief, UPMC Health Technology Advancement Program.
He has garnered many awards along the way. Recent ones include The Future Vision Foundation Laureate Award (2025), The Wolf Prize in Medicine, The Wolf Foundation (with Botond Roska) (2024), and The EURORDIS Black Pearl Scientific Award (2024). In 2023, he was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and appointed to the French Presidential Council for Science. That same year, he received The International Prize in Translational Neuroscience -The Reemtsma Stiftung- Max Planck Gesellschaft (with Botond Roska) and was promoted to Commander in the National Order of Merit of France and appointed to the Council of The National Order of Merit.
Read about Dr. Sahel’s life in his own words in the Pittsburgh Quarterly.
Watch the short documentary about Dr. Sahel by the Future Vision Foundation.