Introduction to the Foundation Voir et Entendre
The creation
The Foundation Voir et Entendre was created in May 2007 by two internationally renowned experts, Pr Christine Petit and Pr José-Alain Sahel.
“Voir et Entendre”’s challenges are to defy sensory handicaps linked to vision and hearing, both of which have become public health stakes. As we can see throughout industrialized countries ocular and auditory diseases are gaining ground, mainly due to the ageing populations.
The Foundation therefore brings together the best-known French and international scientific teams, hospital services and industries around common research themes, with the aim to rapidly find new and adapted treatments.
Within the Foundation are the department of neuroscience of the Pasteur Institute, managed by Christine Petit and the Vision Institute, managed by José-Alain Sahel, the Clinical Investigation Centre of the National Ophthalmologic Hospital Centre (CHNO) of the Quinze-Vingts, three reference centres for rare diseases and four clinical hospital departments.
The head office is located at the Vision Institute, itself within the CHNO of the Quinze-Vingts in Paris. The later has supported this project from the outset along with the Pasteur Institute, National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Pierre and Marie Curie University and the French Federation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Objectives
The innovative approach of the Foundation Voir et Entendre is to support research programs related to two handicaps so that specialists of both sight and hearing can exchange permanently therefore enriching their knowledge. The Foundation’s main areas of research are:
- Diagnosis: improvement, creation and diffusion of diagnosis means related to sensory impairments.
- Prevention and treatment: understanding the mechanisms that trigger certain pathologies and their evolution, research into different treatments (therapeutic molecules, implant development, miniaturisation to deliver active principals locally…)
- Team studies of sensory defects: combined diagnosis improvement, multidisciplinary trainings;
- Improvement of sensory rehabilitation.
The Foundation also encourages the collaboration between fundamental and clinical research teams, as well as industrial partnerships, so as to accelerate therapeutic innovation and rapidly develop the treatments needed by the patient
International Visibility
The Foundation Voir et Entendre shall soon become an international reference centre for research on sensory diseases.
The Foundation is already at the head of a broad network of European collaborations thanks to EVI-GENORET projects (60 European groups) managed by José-Alain Sahel, EUROHEAR (25 European groups) managed by Christine Petit and RETRAINET and NeuroKCNQpathies in which José Sahel and Christine Petit are respective partners.
