AID is dedicated to advancing transformative solutions that improve patient care and redefine the future of dermatology, which is why our board is composed of visionaries who are deeply committed to driving change in skin health. These leaders bring their expertise from diverse backgrounds, uniting to shape a brighter future for dermatology.
In this installment of our “Meet the Board” series, we are honored to feature Dr. Michael Girardi, Evans Professor and Vice Chair of Faculty Development & Scientific Innovation at the Yale School of Medicine. A distinguished physician-scientist, Dr. Girardi’s groundbreaking work has redefined our understanding of cutaneous lymphoma, immunology, and carcinogenesis. With a wealth of experience and hundreds of publications with over 13,000 citations to his name, Dr. Girardi is a leader in both research and mentorship, impacting the next generation of dermatologists and scientists.
In our interview with Dr. Girardi, he shares that he believes that collaboration, cross-disciplinary partnerships, and team science are essential to driving innovation, and he sees AID’s mission as a perfect embodiment of this approach. By fostering an ecosystem where academic researchers collaborate with biotech experts, AID enables the translation of creative ideas into real-world solutions for patients. Dr. Girardi is particularly excited about the accelerating pace of therapeutic development, with AI and immune system re-engineering poised to revolutionize dermatology and beyond. As a strong advocate for early-stage innovation, he emphasizes the importance of moving ideas from the research bench to the clinic, offering patients hope through tangible, impactful progress. By leveraging the unique accessibility of the skin, Dr. Girardi believes dermatology can serve as a model for other medical fields, accelerating personalized therapies and advancing new treatments that will ultimately improve lives globally.
What personally drew you to AID and its mission?
To me, it is about the unique ecosystem provided by the AID, a bringing together of academicians with outside-the-box ideas and folks from the biotechnology universe that understand how to get those ideas to patients. The level of energy and freedom of thought around improving the lives of patients with skin diseases, rare and common, is unbounded. And to learn from and work with folks from so many different backgrounds with so many different areas of expertise is empowering.
Where do you see the biggest opportunity to change the future of dermatologic health?
We are in a new area where pathogenesis deciphering is lessening, and therapeutic development is exponentially accelerating. Everyone is excited about AI empowering drug development, personalized therapeutics, and healthcare delivery. Engineering and re-engineering the immune system to control inflammation and cancer will become even more powerful and precise.
From your perspective, what does the next generation of dermatology innovators need most right now?
Collaboration, partnership, and team science will accelerate research and amplify a young researcher’s potential impact. All scientists and innovators need to understand how academia can synergistically work with the pharmaceutical industry, big and small, to move ideas and research data into practical solutions.
How do you think early-stage innovation in dermatology can better support patients in the real world?
Early-stage innovation is one step beyond the good idea. It builds on other findings and incorporates the latest technologies. When patients see scientists and clinicians innovating around their diseases, it gives them another level of hope – and we all know how therapeutic hope is. Getting early-stage innovations to the clinic as efficiently as possible is a challenge that must be met.
We’re in a moment of rapid change across biotech and healthcare. Where do you see dermatology falling behind, and where is it breaking new ground?
Skin is incredibly accessible and allows for innovation and acceleration of strategies of local delivery, biomarker screening, treatment monitoring through sampling, and microenvironment alterations that allow now only for evaluation of a specific treatment but discovery of new ones. Leveraging these advantages is critical for innovation in the specialty of dermatology, but such efforts will surely have implications for diseases more generally.
Early dermatology innovation breathes life into ideas that may otherwise fade away.