Stay up to date with the latest news and updates from FOCIS Centers of Excellence!
Benaroya Research
New FOCIS FCE Committee Director Named
Sylvia Posso and Anne Hocking, PhD
Carmen Mikacenic, MD, was recently named director of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCiS) Centers of Excellence (FCE) Committee, which is charged with overseeing a network of leading academic medical centers that promote innovation in translational immunology research and clinical practices, provide interdisciplinary training programs, and promote new links for researchers and clinicians. Dr. Mikacenic takes her leadership position as BRI president Jane Buckner, MD, steps down from the role. Dr. Mikacenic says “My goal as the new FCE director is to bring together investigators studying immune mechanisms of disease in the greater Seattle area. As a FOCiS Center of Excellence, we will provide networking to enhance research opportunities and collaborations across local institutions. We will start by having local investigators give chalk talks to discuss ongoing research in a laid-back atmosphere. The FOCiS FCE can also support researchers and clinicians with continuing education opportunities and trainees with travel support for the FOCiS meeting.
Dr. Mikacenic is a board-certified pulmonologist with a clinical practice at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and an Associate Member of the Center for Translational Immunology at Benaroya Research Institute (BRI). Her research at BRI is focused on discovering immune mechanisms of organ dysfunction in critical illness, particularly Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Dr. Mikacenic is also a member of the NIH-funded Human Immunology Project Consortium (HIPC). Together with Dr. Matthew Altman, MD, MPhil, Dr. Mikacenic was recently awarded a grant from the HIPC with the goal to understand the molecular and cellular immune signatures of the response to acute respiratory viral infections in individuals at risk for complications, specifically children with asthma or allergies and adults with rheumatoid arthritis. She is also a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine.
Yale School of Medicine
Human and Translational Immunology Program – June Updates
Allysia Matthews
Dr. Madhav Menon (Associate Professor of Nephrology and Director of Research in Kidney Transplantation at Yale School of Medicine) was awarded a Young Investigator Award at the 2023 American Transplant Congress for his research abstract titled “Multiscale genetic architecture of donor-recipient differences reveals intronic LIMS1 locus mismatches associated with long-term renal transplant survival”. This work was also selected for a plenary presentation at the 2023 Congress and the manuscript is under review.
Dr. Akiko Iwasaki (the Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Professor of Dermatology and of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) at Yale School of Medicine) was awarded the 2023 Else Kröner Fresenius Prize for Medical Research. This award recognizes Dr. Iwasaki’s “outstanding work on the immune response to viral infections”. The prize provides 2.5 million euros in research support for Dr. Iwasaki’s ongoing investigations of long COVID and other post-acute infection syndromes.
The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale
Drs. Richard Flavell (Sterling Professor of Immunobiology) and Ruslan Medzhitov (Sterling Professor of Immunobiology), along with 10 other Yale faculty, were recipients of a 2023 Blavatnik Award. These awards provide accelerator funding to commercialize biomedical and digital health innovations. Dr. Flavell is receiving support for a project entitled “Epiregulin Inhibition to Treat Scleroderma Skin and Lung Fibrosis”, which he is pursuing in collaboration with Dr. Ian Odell (Assistant Professor of Dermatology, Yale). Dr. Medzhitov is receiving support for a project entitled “To identify a new class of therapeutics for inflammatory diseases”.