Talk:José-Alain Sahel

Updating the page

Hi,

How can I update the wikipedia page without it being labeled as a Conflict of Interest. The page is outdated and incorrectly cited. Milo287 (talk) 00:32, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Do you have a conflict of interest? I mean, are you associated with the subject in any way? If so, you should disclose it on your user page User:Milo287.

Editors with a conflict of interest should propose a change on this talk page. You can do this by using Wikipedia:Edit request wizard. ~Anachronist (talk) 20:22, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

September 2024 Declined promo COI edit request

Details can be found here: [1]. Not sure why the thread is not appearing on this page? Axad12 (talk) 06:13, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

It's because Talk:Jose-Alain Sahel, where that request appears, isn't the same talk page as this one, which has an accented "é" in "José". That talk page should be redirected to this talk page, just like the article name is redirected to this article name. I have just done this. ~Anachronist (talk) 15:30, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. I looked for ages but I didn't spot that difference!

I'm concerned by the almost total lack of citations in this article (even some of the citations that do exist are dead links).

Furthermore, the declined promotional edit request only approached the lack of citations issue by providing details of academic papers, which (to the best of my knowledge) are not admissible as citations for info on a Wikipedia article as they are non-independent. Plus, of course, they only refer to research matters, rather than details of the subjects life and career. So, that edit request would only have made the problems with this article worse (by adding extra promotional unreferenced info).

To what extent is this article okay to remain as it is, i.e. full of a huge amount of unsupported information, much of which is essentially of a promotional nature?

Copying in user:Milo287 for courtesy. Axad12 (talk) 15:43, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

I moved the edit request from the redirected talk page to a new section below. ~Anachronist (talk) 08:21, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Edit request 18 September 2024

• What I think should be changed (include citations):

Biography

José-Alain Sahel was born in Tlemcen (Algeria) in 1955. He graduated from the Medical Faculty of the Medical School of Paris University with honors (1980). He followed with a residency in ophthalmology at the Adolphe de Rothschild Ophthalmology Foundation in Paris and the Louis Pasteur University Hospital, Strasbourg, France (1980-1984) and a fellowship at the same institution (1984-1986). 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. José Sahel was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg (1988). He joined Sorbonne Université (former Pierre and Marie Curie University Medical School) in 2002. He was appointed Chairman of a Department of Ophthalmology at the Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital in 2001 and led that Department till 2020. He founded a new Department of Vitreo-Retinal Diseases at the Rothschild Ophthalmology Foundation, which he chaired from 2001 to 2020. He held the Cumberlege Chair of Biomedical Sciences at the Institute of Ophthalmology-University College London from 2001 to 2017. José Sahel created the Institut de la Vision (Sorbonne Université-Inserm, CNRS), which he led from its opening in 2008 until 2021. He also founded and directed a Clinical Investigation Center in Ophthalmology (2004-2021),the National Reference Center on Inherited Retinal Diseases (2006-2020), the Fondation Voir et Entendre, which he now presides 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 a rapid and highly efficient translation of scientific discoveries to the clinic (e.g., over 200 patents, 1200 publications, 12 Spin-Off companies). Today the Institut de la Vision is ranked among the top worldwide institutes and houses more than 300 researchers, clinicians, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows.

In 2016, José Sahel joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as Endowed Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and UPMC where he created a fully integrated translational research facility, the UPMC Vision Institute. The UPMC Vision Institute headquarters is housed in the Mercy Pavilion and opened in May 2023. In this facility, clinicians and researchers are brought together under one roof, enabling improved collaboration and integration of the latest research breakthroughs into patient care. The UPMC Vision Institute includes over 33 principal investigators, 57 faculty clinicians, in addition to residents and trainees. José Sahel is expanding the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, launching breakthrough trials and developing new models of eye care. Like the Institut de la Vision in Paris, the UPMC Vision Institute is also working towards becoming one of the world’s largest interdisciplinary research centers. In addition to leading research, José Sahel also practices at the UPMC Vision Institute as a physician specializing in retina and vitreous disease, with a special focus on inherited retinal degenerations and age-related macular degeneration.

He has received the 2006 NRJ Grand Prix Scientifique de Neurosciences-Académie des Sciences-Institut de France and the 2006 Alcon Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology, the 2012 Innovation Medal of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the 2015 Llora and Gordon Gund Award from Foundation Fighting Blindness, the 2021 Breakthrough in the Life Sciences - Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin, Germany the 2022 Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award for Translational Neuroscience (FENS), the 2023 Gertrud Reemstma International Prize for Translational Neuroscience from the Max Planck Society Germany (with Botond Roska), the EURORDIS 2024 Black Pearl Scientific Award, the 2024 Michaelson Award from the Macula Society,), the 2024 Wolf Prize in Medicine (with Botond Roska)

Dr. Sahel was the Technological Innovation Chair at the Collège de France (2015-2016). 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).

Currently, José-Alain Sahel is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of both public and private institutions, including: Foundation Fighting Blindness Retinal Degeneration Fund and Advisor, and UPMC Enterprises, LightStone Ventures, the Gilbert Familly Foundation, and the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology, Basel. He serves on several editorial boards of prestigious journals such as the Science Translational Medicine (2009-), Journal of Clinical Investigation, Translational Vision Science and Technology (Associate Editor 2012-), Ophthalmology and Therapy, and Progress in Retinal and Eye Research.

He was appointed in 2021 to the Conseil Stratégique des Industries de Santé and in 2023 to the newly formed Conseil Présidentiel de la Science, advising Président Emmanuel Macron and to the Conseil de l’Ordre National du Mérite.

José-Alain Sahel has given more than 300 guest lectures, including recently - Cambridge Ophthalmological Symposium: The Euretina Lecture (2012), “The Eye and Brain” (Cambridge, UK, 2022); The Macula Society Meeting Michaelson Lecture “Gene-Independent Strategies in Retinal Dystrophies: The Translational Pathways” (Palm Springs, CA, USA, 2024); 2024 Center for Visual Science, 33rd Symposium Keynote Lecture “From photoreceptor neuroprotection to vision restoration : translational challenges” (Rochester, NY U.S.A., 2024); Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel “Translational studies in neuroprotection and vision restoration” (Basel, Switzerland, 2024); Sculpted Light in the Brain Conference “Sculpting the Future of Vision Restoration” (Paris, France, 2024); From the Eye to the Brain Nature conference “Neuroprotection of Cone Photoreceptors as a Gene-Independent therapeutic strategy in Inherited retinal diseases” (Rome, Italy, 2024); and EVER Congress -the De Laey EVER keynote lecture “Cone-directed strategies in retinal degenerations” (Valencia, Spain, 2023).

José-Alain Sahel co-authored over 700 peer-reviewed articles and is also co-inventor and co-owner of more than 90 patents. Dr. Sahel founded StreetLab (development of tools and methods for studying visual handicap and evaluation efficacy of emerging therapies in real-life conditions) and several companies to bring novel therapies to patients, e.g., Fovea Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Sanofi in 2009), GenSight Biologics (development of genetic and optogenetic therapies), Pixium Vision (Artificial Retina), Sparing Vision, among others (Prophesee, Chronolife, Tilak Healthcare, Cilensee, SharpEye, NetraMind, Vegavect and Avista Therapeutics,..). 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. José-Alain Sahel’s work has contributed to understanding and preventing vision loss from photoreceptor cell degeneration and developing several novel vision restoration strategies. His clinical research is closely entangled with experimental research (information processing, genetic therapeutic research including modeling), evidence of pre-clinical concepts, technological developments in imaging and surgery. He conducted dozens of clinical trials on retinal conditions and led several successful first-in-human vision restoration clinical trials in gene therapy, retinal prosthesis, and optogenetics.

Together with his team, Dr. Sahel worked on the conception, development and evaluation of innovative treatments for retinal diseases, with a special focus on genetic rod-cone dystrophies, including neuroprotection, stem cells, gene therapy, pharmacology and artificial retina "Nature. 2018 May;557(7705):359-367 (doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0076-4". Nature."Sci Transl Med. 2019 May 29;11(494) pii: eaax2324. (doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aax2324)". Sci Transl Med.

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. Dr. Sahel’s research team (with S. Mohand-Said and Thierry Léveillard) identified the underlying signal: Rod-derived Cone Viability Factor (RdCVF)"Nat Genet. 2004 Jul;36(7):755-9 (doi: 10.1038/ng1386". Nat Genet. and determined its mechanisms of action as associated with the stimulation of aerobic glycolysis and antioxidant"Cell, 2015 May 7;161(4):817-32 (doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.03.023". Cell.. RdCVF is now in clinical trial as a possible therapeutic agent to save cones and treat a spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases as a mutation independent strategy.

Utilizing a variety of molecular and functional genomics approaches, Dr. Sahel's group aims to identify novel disease-causing genes for retinal degenerations. Besides 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"Am J Ophthalmol. 2021 : S0002-9394(21)00212-9 (doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2021.04.013". Am J Opthalmol.. Dr. Sahel chaired (2006-2020) the Clinical Investigation Center (CIC) at the National Eye Hospital des Quinze-Vingst in Paris. One of his most significant 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. Fink (Institut Langevin), Dr. Sahel led a very competitive, large, ERC-Synergy grant (2014-2021) aiming at developing novel technologies for morpho-functional imaging of the visual system ("Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jun 23;117(25):14453-14463 (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1916787117)". Proc Natl Acad Sci.. 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 (. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00387; 10.1016/j.ajo.2023.06.028)

Dr. Sahel and his team have developed several regenerative therapeutic approaches to restore vision. He spearheaded (with Marisol Corral-Debrinski) a novel gene therapy for Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, a blinding neurodegenerative disease. After demonstration of vision restoration in relevant models "Brain. 2012 Jan;135(Pt 1):35-52. (doi: 10.1093/brain/awr290". Brain., Sahel’s group and the start-up Gensight undertook pioneering clinical studies for safety and efficacy of AAV2-ND4 gene therapy, leading to the first demonstration in several large-scale randomized trials of the efficacy of gene therapy in Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy"Science Translational Medicine 2020 Dec 9;12(573):eaaz7423. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaz742, Brain, 2022;, awac421, https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac421)". Science Translational Medicine..

With B. Roska at the Institute of Ophthalmology of Basel and S. Picaud and Deniz Dalkara at Institut de la Vision in Paris, Dr. Sahel’s group demonstrated that different retinal cell types such as "dormant cones" and retinal ganglion cells can be converted into “artificial photoreceptors” by targeting the expression of genetically encoded light sensors enabling mice with retinal degeneration to perform visually guided behaviors"Science. 2010 Jul 23;329(5990):413-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1190897". Science.. After this successful demonstration of visual function restoration, Dr. Sahel and his team, in partnership with Botond Roska and the start-up Gensight, conceived the first-in-man clinical trial combining a biotherapy (photoactivatable optogene channelrhodopsin expressed in retinal ganglion cells) coupled with a stimulation device and observed the first clinical evidence for vision restoration in humans using optogenetic "Nat Med. 2021 Jul;27(7):1223-1229. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01351-4". Nat Med..

Dr. Sahel is at the forefront of several first-in-man studies on prosthetic vision. After early clinical applications of the Argus II retinal prosthesis, he led -alongside D. Palanker at Stanford University- the clinical development of a highly innovative wireless retinal prosthesis for photovoltaic vision restoration, currently in clinical trials in Europe and US for Age-related Macular Degeneration, with unprecedented outcomes "(Nat Commun. 2022 Jan 26;13(1):513.(doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28125-x". Nat Commun..

• Why it should be changed:

To make the page accurate, I would like to submit this change. The biography and research paragraphs have the correct information for the page and the proper citations.

Milo287 (talk) 20:53, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: Edit is clearly entirely promotional in intent. Axad12 (talk) 06:06, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

References