Achievements

Selected Scientific Achievements

• Creating methods to generate regulatory T cells in the laboratory, that open the door for novel therapies for autoimmune diseases.
• Identification of a triggering cytokine that promotes asthma and other allergic diseases.
• Dissecting the molecular mechanisms for defective DNA repair pathways, an important control point for cancer susceptibility.
• Descriptions of immune system genes which provide insight into the way the immune system evolves and functions.
• Diabetes clinical trial leadership, including pioneering work on insulin formulations, insulin pump systems, human islet transplantation, and immunotherapy for autoimmune diabetes intervention and treatment.
• Production of MHC tetramers—groundbreaking biomarkers to detect and measure specific immune cells in blood samples.
• Cancer clinical trial leadership, from one of the first Breast Cancer Detection Clinics to participation in the pivotal multicenter clinical trial that validates tamoxifen as prevention therapy for women at high risk of breast cancer.
• Pioneering research approaches to rheumatologic disease, from prediction of rheumatoid arthritis to the use of autologous stem cell transplantation for scleroderma.
• Identification of genetic markers for disease susceptibility, particularly autoimmune (Type 1) diabetes.
• Regional leadership in cochlear (inner ear) implants for profoundly deaf children.