The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) has elected three Yale School of Medicine (YSM) physician-scientists as new members. The ASCI is dedicated to the advancement of research that extends our understanding and improves the treatment of diseases of all people, and members are committed to mentoring future generations of physician-scientists of diverse backgrounds and biomedical disciplines.
Those newly elected from YSM are:
Julie Goodwin, MD, associate professor of pediatrics (nephrology) and division chief of pediatric nephrology. Systemic steroids are commonly used in clinical practice for many conditions with varying degrees of efficacy and usually unfavorable side effect profiles. The Goodwin Lab investigates the effects of steroid microenvironments on whole-organism phenotypes and how these effects could be translated into novel tissue-specific therapeutic approaches. Goodwin has a particular interest in understanding the connection between cardiovascular and renal diseases including the key cell types that mediate cardiorenal crosstalk and opportunities for cell-specific steroid intervention.
Ya-Chi Ho, MD, PhD, associate professor of microbial pathogenesis and of medicine (infectious diseases) and of microbial pathogenesis, and director of graduate studies for the Microbiology PhD Program. She investigates mechanisms of HIV persistence in the blood and tissue using virology, immunology, molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, and translational approaches. Combining single-cell multi-omics, CRISPR screens, and drug screens, she examines HIV-induced immune dysfunction and HIV-host interactions at the HIV integration site. She defined how immune selection pressure shaped HIV proviral landscape, discovered HIV-driven aberrant cancer gene expression, examined HIV+ T cell clonal expansion dynamics, and identified HIV persistence in cytotoxic CD4+ T lymphocytes. Her research program provides fundamental mechanistic understanding of HIV persistence and guides HIV cure strategies.
Andrew Wang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (rheumatology, allergy, and immunology) and of immunobiology. Wang’s lab seeks to understand how the environment interacts with the host to affect disease trajectories. It utilizes a broad range of techniques spanning physiology, metabolism, inflammation, neurobiology, and immunology, coupled with patient samples and clinical data. Major questions Wang’s lab is addressing include: Why do different disease courses emerge in the same disease? Why are food allergies and autoimmune diseases so much more common today? How does the immune system interact with other organs to orchestrate resilience to inflammatory damage? Wang is also a practicing internist and rheumatologist. He serves on the inpatient acute medicine and consult services and sees