W. Mark Saltzman, Ph.D.

An interdisciplinary team of Yale researchers has developed a novel gene editing platform that has the potential to correct cystic fibrosis (CF), a potentially debilitating and deadly disease.

Cystic fibrosis is caused by a mutation in a gene called the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR). It is often thought of as a lung disease because some of the most severe implications occur in the airways, but it can also affect multiple organs in the body, including the pancreas, small and large intestines, and colon… Continue reading.

The holy grail of dermatology, says Michael Girardi, MD, FAAD, Professor of Dermatology, is a simple nonsurgical treatment for skin cancers. Dr. Girardi’s quest may soon be over. He and his collaborator, W. Mark Saltzman, PhD, Goizueta Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology and of Chemical Engineering, have the grail within their grasp, thanks to sticky nanoparticles.

“Skin cancer is an enormous burden to our patients and our healthcare system,” said Dr. Girardi. “There are more skin cancers in the world than all other cancers combined. The incidence is mindboggling, and it keeps growing.” Some of his patients with basal cell carcinomas or squamous cell carcinomas have had five, ten, even twenty surgeries, with scars that run together. “An alternative that’s simpler for the patient, for the caregiver, and for healthcare management is a tremendous unmet need,” he said… Continue reading.

As the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 continues to mutate, it presents new roadblocks to efforts to contain its spread. A Yale research team led by Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, Waldemar von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology and professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and of epidemiology (microbial diseases), has found success in a new approach to vaccination—systemic vaccines that train the entire body’s immune response followed by boosters administered directly to the nasal cavity, to deliver special protection in the part of the body most affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In a research paper posted on the preprint site bioRxiv, Iwasaki and co-first authors Tianyang Mao, BS, and Benjamin Israelow, MD, PhD, note that the mRNA-based vaccines that have been such a powerful tool against COVID have shown diminished effectiveness over time. They especially appear to lack strength in the nasal cavity mucosa and respiratory tract—the region of the body where the virus is most likely to cause illness and from which it is most likely to be transmitted to other people… Continue reading.