Lupus, Autoimmune Inflamation & Retroelements - The Gehlhausen Lab at Yale School of Medicine
The Gehlhausen Lab at Yale investigates cutaneous lupus, focusing on how the skin’s immune response becomes chronically activated and fails to shut off, effectively treating the tissue as if it were infected by a virus. Researchers highlight that lupus patients exhibit elevated interferon levels, producing symptoms such as chronic fatigue that mirror viral illness. Key findings reveal that retroelements—genetic sequences comprising roughly 50% of the human genome—normally remain epigenetically silent but become transcriptionally active in autoimmune settings. This reactivation fools the innate immune system into recognizing self‑DNA as viral, driving both innate and adaptive immune signaling. The team employs cutting‑edge single‑cell and spatial RNA sequencing to chart cellular interactions within lesions, and they complement these data with patient‑derived in‑vitro assays and genetically engineered mouse models. These platforms allow precise manipulation of candidate pathways to test causality and therapeutic potential. Ultimately, the work aims to identify upstream drivers of interferon and retroelement activation, paving the way for targeted therapies that could mitigate lupus symptoms while minimizing side effects compared with broad immunosuppression.
Meet Oncologist Michael Hurwitz, MD, PhD
The video introduces Dr. Michael Hurwitz, MD, PhD, an oncologist who focuses on urogenital malignancies—including prostate, kidney, bladder, and testicular cancers—and heads a solid‑tumor cellular immunotherapy program. Hurwitz explains that his team harvests patients’ own immune cells or donor cells, engineers...
Meet Physiatrist Mustapha Kemal, MD
The video introduces Dr. Mustapha Kemal, a board‑certified physiatrist, and explains that physiatry is a medical specialty dedicated to improving patients’ functional abilities after surgery, injury, or chronic illness. Unlike traditional specialties that focus on diagnosis or surgical intervention, physiatrists...
Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids
The Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids was created to generate rigorous, interdisciplinary research on cannabis—from molecular neuroscience to real‑world behavioral studies—and to train the next generation of investigators for the next two decades. The Center highlights how...
Meet Pulmonary Critical Care Physician Shyoko Honiden, MD, MS
The video introduces Dr. Shyoko Honiden, a pulmonary critical‑care physician whose daily work centers on managing the most severely ill patients in the intensive care unit. She describes the ICU as a setting where patients arrive after events such as...
DNA Damage Response - A Basic Explanation
Conventional treatment of adult and pediatric brain tumors relies heavily on cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiation, both of which induce extensive DNA damage in cancer cells. The video explains that tumor cells often survive this assault by activating DNA damage response (DDR)...
Glioblastoma, ecDNA & Targeted Therapy - The Verhaak Lab at Yale School of Medicine
The Verhaak Lab at Yale School of Medicine presented research on extrachromosomal circular DNA (ecDNA) in glioblastoma, explaining how these small DNA loops differ from the linear chromosomes that normally house genetic material. The team showed that ecDNA enables tumor cells...
Genomic Mutations, Treatment--Resistance & Prostate Cancer - The Deng Lab at Yale School of Medicine
Therapy resistance remains a major hurdle in prostate cancer, especially after initial success with hormone‑based treatments. The Deng Lab at Yale School of Medicine is dedicated to uncovering the molecular mechanisms that enable cancer cells to evade therapy. The team combines...
Pulmonary Fibrosis, Immune Responses & Guidance Proteins - The Herzog Lab at Yale School of Medicine
The Herzog Lab at Yale School of Medicine is investigating pulmonary fibrosis, a lethal lung disease characterized by progressive scarring that stiffens the organ and shortens life expectancy. Researchers argue that fibrosis results from an ongoing, maladaptive healing response after an...
Micro-Ultrasound for Prostate Cancer Detection - Yale Medicine Explains
The video explains how micro‑ultrasound, a high‑frequency trans‑rectal imaging technology, is being positioned as a new frontline tool for detecting prostate cancer. Traditionally, elevated PSA or abnormal exams lead to a biopsy guided only by standard ultrasound, which samples a...
Cell Membranes - A Basic Explanation
The video provides a concise overview of the cell membrane’s primary purpose—creating a controlled molecular barrier that prevents uncontrolled diffusion of substances in and out of the cell. It explains that specific membrane proteins form gated entry points, dictating what enters,...
Cellular Damage, Repair & Apoptosis - The Rogers Lab at Yale School of Medicine
The Rogers Lab at Yale explores how cells decide between DNA repair and programmed death when genomic integrity is compromised. Central to their work is the formation of triplex DNA—three‑stranded structures that the cell perceives as damage—and the use of...
Nanoparticles, Genome Therapy & Antibodies - The Zhou Research Lab at Yale School of Medicine
The Zhou Research Lab at Yale School of Medicine is a biomedical‑engineering group that builds platform technologies for delivering therapeutics to the brain. Its work spans three distinct avenues: engineered nanoparticles for crossing the blood‑brain barrier, a novel “step‑engineering”...
Meet Hepatologist Michael Schilsky, MD
The video features hepatologist Michael Schilsky, MD, outlining how liver transplantation has progressed from a pioneering procedure in the 1970s to a routine component of modern hepatology. He explains that transplants now address both severe acute liver failure and, more...
Meet Transplant Surgeon Hiroshi Sogawa, MD, MBA, CPE, FACS
In a recent interview, transplant surgeon Hiroshi Sogawa, MD, MBA, CPE, FACS, outlines his center’s approach to liver transplantation, emphasizing a robust living‑donor program and a shift toward minimally invasive techniques. Sogawa explains that the living‑donor pathway is designed to streamline...