Built in the heart of the Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital in Paris, France, the Vision Institute (French: Institut de la Vision) is one of the most important research centers ( Inserm / UPMC /

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

) 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 a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

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 or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, som ...

Diabetic retinopathy Diabetic retinopathy (also known as diabetic eye disease), is a medical condition in which damage occurs to the retina due to diabetes mellitus. It is a leading cause of blindness in developed countries. Diabetic retinopathy affects up to 80 perc ...

Glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

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 centr ...

Retinitis pigmentosa Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetic disorder of the eyes that causes loss of vision. Symptoms include trouble seeing at night and decreasing peripheral vision (side and upper or lower visual field). As peripheral vision worsens, people may ...

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 (french: Institut Pasteur) 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 fo ...

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...

) 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 Eye Center, and the Eye and Ear Foundation Chair ...

. 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-based international ophthalmic optics company that designs, manufactures and markets lenses to correct or protect eyesight. Its headquarters is in Charenton-le-Pont (near Paris), France. It is the world's larg ...

, Sanofi Fovea, Thea, Horus Pharma an
Iris Pharma

References

External links

Vision Institut

Vision Therapy Exercises
{{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