The Vision Institute (French: Institut de la Vision) is a research center in the

Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital The Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital (''Centre hospitalier national d’ophtalmologie des Quinze-Vingts'') is France's national ophthalmology hospital located in Paris, in the 12th arrondissement. The hospital gave its name to the ' ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. It is one of several such centers (

Inserm The (Inserm, ) is the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. History and organisation Inserm was created in 1964 as a successor to the French National Institute of Health. Inserm is the only public research institution ...

/ UPMC /

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

) in Europe on eye diseases. The Institute's goal is to discover, develop and test treatments and technological innovations in the area

ophthalmology Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

and to improve the autonomy and the quality of life of patients.

Research areas

Macular degeneration Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred vision, blurred or vision loss, no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no sym ...

Diabetic retinopathy Diabetic retinopathy (also known as diabetic eye disease) is a medical condition in which damage occurs to the retina due to diabetes. It is a leading cause of blindness in developed countries and one of the lead causes of sight loss in the wor ...

Glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can lead to damage of the optic nerve. The optic nerve transmits visual information from the eye to the brain. Glaucoma may cause vision loss if left untreated. It has been called the "silent thief of ...

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a mitochondrially inherited (transmitted from mother to offspring) degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and their axons that leads to an acute or subacute loss of central vision; it predomin ...

Retinal vein occlusion Central retinal vein occlusion, also CRVO, is when the central retinal vein becomes occluded, usually through thrombosis. The central retinal vein is the venous equivalent of the central retinal artery and both may become occluded. Since the cent ...

Retinitis pigmentosa Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a member of a group of genetic disorders called inherited retinal dystrophy (IRD) that cause loss of vision. Symptoms include trouble seeing at night and decreasing peripheral vision (side and upper or lower visua ...

Usher syndrome Usher syndrome, also known as Hallgren syndrome, Usher–Hallgren syndrome, retinitis pigmentosa–dysacusis syndrome or dystrophia retinae dysacusis syndrome, is a rare genetic disorder caused by a mutation in any one of at least 11 genes result ...

* Eye implants * Gene and cell therapies * High-resolution retinal imagery * Innovative technologies dedicated to visually impaired

Basic research

Vision Institute employs more than 250 scientists (Inserm - UPMC - CNRS) specialized in vision disorders. There are 4 research departments: * Developmental biology: analysis of the development of the visual system, connections, stems cells and regenerative approaches * Visual information data processing: understanding and evaluation of the visual information data processing by the retina and the brain, neurotransmission pharmaco-toxicology * Genetics: understanding of the genetic mechanisms associated with ophthalmological disorders, identification of the genes and proteins providing protection against neuronal stress * Therapeutics: conception and evaluation of innovative treatments - cell therapy for cornea, pharmaco-toxicology of the ocular surface and glaucoma, gene therapy for neuropathies, modeling of retinal degeneration and vascular disorders

Clinical research

The Ophthalmological Clinical Investigation Centre of the Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital opened in 2004. The Clinical Investigation Centre covers all eye diseases but is specialised in exploration of retinal pathologies (macular degeneration, hereditary retinal degenerations, diabetic retinopathies, retinal vascular pathologies) and technological innovations.

Research in the quality of life

The Vision Institute runs a StreetLab Platform Project. The StreetLab platform enables researchers to design and develop innovative technology solutions for the visually impaired while being able to evaluate the therapeutic benefit of this research directly with the people involved.

Foundation Voir et Entendre

The Foundation Voir et Entendre was created in May 2007 by Prof. Christine Petit (

Institut Pasteur The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. T ...

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

) and Prof.

José-Alain Sahel José-Alain Sahel is a French ophthalmologist and scientist. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Director of the UPMC Vision Institute, and the Eye and Ear Foundation ...

. The Foundation's objective is to coordinate and to finance research programs on ocular and auditory diseases. Its mission is to stimulate the collaboration between fundamental, clinical and industrial research, so as to accelerate therapeutic innovation for the benefit of the patients.

Industrial collaborations

Five major companies have settled in the Institute to develop research projects in the field of vision:

Essilor Essilor International is a French multinational corporation specialized in the design, manufacture and sale of ophthalmic lenses, optical equipment and instruments. It is the world's largest manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses. Founded in 197 ...

, Sanofi Fovea, Thea, Horus Pharma an
Iris Pharma

References

External links

Vision Institut
{{authority control Medical and health organizations based in France Molecular biology institutes Genetics or genomics research institutions Biological research institutes Research institutes in France Ophthalmology organizations