Molecular Therapeutics

Skin offers an attractive site for development of new approaches in molecular therapeutics, and our laboratory is pursuing development of new molecular therapeutics for the treatment of skin and systemic disease.  As a practicing dermatologist, my clinical expertise is genetic or inherited skin diseases. Between 2011-2015, I co-directed the Stanford multidisciplinary Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) clinic. EB is an inherited skin disorder that causes blisters after even the mildest trauma. Children with the most severe subtype are considered the sickest of all chronically ill children. At Stanford, I participated in an innovative, cutting-edge clinical trial aimed to cure this disease. In that trial, we grew patient-specific skin cells, corrected the gene mutation in the lab, and then transplanted the corrected cells back to the patient.  With my experience in genetic skin diseases and clinical trials, I intend to establish a similar program to tackle other genetic skin diseases.