We recently moved to the Vision Institute, just in the center of Paris, led by José Sahel. This structure combined various approaches, from computational modelling to gene therapy in order understand how information is processed and encoded in the retina, but also in the primary visual cortex. To give you a summary with numbers, here is what the Vision Institute is:
- 6000 m2 dedicated to academical research on ocular diseases
- 17 research teams organized in 4 departments
- 250 researchers
- 20 clinicians
- 7 industrials
- 12 technological platforms
- 1 Clinical Investigation Center dedicated to vision (Clinical Investigation Center of the Quinze-Vingts hospital)
- 1 national center of the rare diseases of the retina
- 1 Carnot Institute (Institut Carnot Voir & Entendre)
The final goal of the Institute is to developed retinal implants, or prosthesis, in order to treat diseases such as retinis pigmentosa. The field of prosthesic is a blooming field, for example with cochlear implants that are now widely used, and vision is just the next step.