Paul A. Sieving

Paul A. Sieving is a former director of the National Eye Institute, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Prior to joining the NIH in 2001, he served on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School as the Paul R. Lichter Professor of Ophthalmic Genetics.  He also was the founding director of the Center for Retinal and Macular Degeneration in the university's Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.  

Sieving is recognized for translational medicine studies of human progressive, blinding, inherited retinal and macular neurodegeneration diseases, including retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease.  His laboratory studies the conditions in transgenic animal models in pursuit of pharmacological approaches to slowing degeneration in people with the disorders. His group conducted the first human clinical trial of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) as a rescue factor for retinitis pigmentosa.

His lab studies potential treatments for a juvenile form of macular degeneration termed X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS).  The lab developed a mouse model of XLRS and successfully treated the condition by gene therapy in mouse and rabbit models.  Sieving's team, in coordination with the clinical staff at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, is conducting a phase 1 clinical trial to test the therapy in XLRS patients. He maintains a small clinical practice at NEI for patients with these and other genetic retinal diseases, including Stargardt juvenile macular degeneration.

Sieving established the NEI Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI) for Regenerative Medicine, a major program to develop treatments for eye diseases. The AGI is a strategic research effort to restore function of critical nerve cells in the eye and visual system even after they are damaged by disease. Success will mean new approaches to prevent and even reverse vision loss in diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. Provided by Wikipedia