Sight + Sound Bites: Seeing the Future of Gene Therapy

José-Alain Sahel, MD, Leah Byrne, PhD, and Michelle Alabek, MS, LCGC speak about genetics and gene therapy options.

Dr. José-Alain Sahel is the Chair and Distinguished Professor 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 Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology. He is known worldwide for his expertise in vision restoration techniques and has developed several interventions—including stem cell implantation, gene therapy, innovative pharmacologic approaches, and retinal prostheses—for retinitis pigmentosa, other retinal dystrophies, age-related macular degeneration, and other vision impairments that currently are untreatable.

Dr. Leah Byrne holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Neurobiology and Bioengineering. The Byrne Lab develops gene-based approaches, including viral vector-mediated gene delivery and genome editing, to interrogate the biology underlying retinal disease and treat inherited blindness.

Michelle Alabek is a certified genetic counselor at the UPMC Vision Institute, where her clinical focus is inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs). In addition to providing clinical genetic counseling, she co-coordinates the Retinal Dystrophy Clinic and operationally supports delivery of commercial and clinical trial gene therapies for IRDs. Her research interests include the impact of gene therapy on the genetic counseling profession, as well as genetic and clinical trial literacy among patients with IRDs.

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