The Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), in Basel, Switzerland, announced that Botond Roska, MD, director of science at the IOB, and José-Alain Sahel, MD, University of Pittsburgh and Chair of the IOB Scientific Advisory Board, have been awarded the 2026 António Champalimaud Vision Award. Worth €1 million (approximately US $1.2 million), this is the largest award worldwide in the field of vision and ophthalmology. It marks a major international recognition of the research led by Dr. Roska and Dr. Sahel and, for IOB, of its mission to understand the mechanisms of vision and translate these discoveries into new therapies for vision loss, the IOB said in a press release.

According to the IOB, the award recognizes more than 2 decades of fundamental, translational, and clinical research by Dr. Roska and Dr. Sahel. Their work has helped establish new approaches to restoring visual function, particularly through optogenetic therapies, which aim to make surviving retinal cells responsive to light when the eye’s natural photoreceptors have been lost through disease.

Dr. Roska is a neuroscientist and one of the founding directors of IOB. According to the IOB, his research has deepened the institute's understanding of retinal function and opened new avenues for cell-specific therapies for retinal diseases. Dr. Sahel is an ophthalmologist and clinician-scientist. He has pioneered therapeutic approaches spanning gene therapy, neuroprotection, and vision restoration. Their long-standing collaboration has helped translate fundamental discoveries about retinal circuits into new therapeutic strategies and clinical research. In 2021, Dr. Roska, Dr. Sahel and their collaborators reported in Nature Medicine that an optogenetic approach could partially restore visual function in a blind patient with retinitis pigmentosa.

“I am very honored to receive this prestigious award together with José-Alain Sahel,” said Dr. Roska in the press release. “It is an important recognition of our long-standing collaboration and, above all, a major support for our future research. It gives us the freedom to keep asking bold questions and to pursue new approaches to restoring vision.”

According to the IOB, the award funds will support the next phase of Dr. Roska and Dr. Sahel’s research. With this distinction, Dr. Roska and Dr. Sahel join a distinguished group of António Champalimaud Vision Award laureates whose work has transformed the understanding, prevention, and treatment of blindness and visual impairment, the IOB said in the press release. RP