Three from YSM Elected as New Members of ASCI

Three Yale School of Medicine (YSM) faculty members were elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) for 2026, one of the nation’s oldest medical honor societies.

Brian Hafler, MD, PhD, is an associate professor of ophthalmology and visual science, a William R. Orthwein, Jr. ’38 Yale Scholar, and director of the Inherited Retinal Disorders Service. His research focuses on macular degeneration and glaucoma and leverages advanced single-cell technologies to uncover disease mechanisms and identify novel therapeutic approaches. Hafler is also a practicing ophthalmologist specializing in the treatment of complex retinal diseases and has a particular interest in the development of stem cell–based regenerative strategies.

Srikant Rangaraju, MBBS, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Neurology, studies how the immune system in the brain affects conditions like Alzheimer's disease and stroke. His lab focuses on how brain cells—neurons and glia—change at the molecular level with these conditions and aims to develop novel therapeutic approaches to mitigate the neuropathology. Clinically, he specializes in vascular neurology, providing comprehensive care for patients with stroke.

Edward Stites, MD, PhD, is an associate professor of laboratory medicine. He combines traditional experimental biology with mathematics, computation, and data science to deepen understanding of disease and its treatment, with an emphasis on RAS signaling and cancer. His lab uses its expertise in mathematical modeling to formulate new hypotheses that they then test experimentally, and they investigate emerging areas of computational biology and data science.

ASCI is “dedicated to the advancement of research that extends understanding of diseases and improves treatment, and members are committed to mentoring future generations of physician-scientists,” says the society. It is also focused on “the special role of physician-scientists in research, clinical care, and medical education, as well as leadership positions in academic medicine and the life sciences industry.”

Yale School of Medicine currently has 73 active, senior, or emeritus members of ASCI.