UPMC’s Dr. José-Alain Sahel Lectures about Retinal Degeneration at Columbia University
June 13, 2020
José-Alain Sahel, MD, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the UPMC Eye Center, presented “Gene Independent Strategies in Retinal Degeneration” as part of the 23rd annual Ulrich Ollendorff, MD, Lecture at Columbia University School of Medicine’s Edward Harkness Eye Institute.
Due to COVID-19, the lecture moved online, allowing more than 200 to attend remotely.
His lecture focused on his work in remedying some of the most serious degenerative retinal diseases. Dr. Sahel discussed his pioneering work in optogenetics – restoring the function of the cone cells in the eye that were not completely lost to disease by utilizing light-sensitive algae. He and his team have been able to restore vision that was once lost by recoding and stimulating the photoreceptor cells.
This treatment has been tested on patients in the United States and several European countries with positive preliminary results.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Sahel’s work in optogenetics.
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