I am a physician-scientist who focuses my clinical and research efforts on vitiligo, and therefore I think about this disease a lot – all the time, in fact. Therefore I thought it would be helpful to share my thoughts with others who are interested in vitiligo as well, particularly the patients who suffer from it and their loved ones. I want to make clear that while I am affiliated with many vitiligo organizations, my comments in this blog are my own, and do not reflect the opinions of those organizations. In addition, my research is largely focused on finding new treatments, and ultimately a cure, for vitiligo. This work is supported by a number of sources, including pharmaceutical companies, which by definition creates potential conflicts of interest. In full disclosure, here is a list of our vitiligo research supporters. Please know that, to the best of my ability, all of my comments are unbiased reflections of my understanding of vitiligo as both a physician and scientist. I do not permit advertisements on my website, and do not endorse companies or products that may advertise on other sites that may be referenced here.
I’ve received many requests for updates about Villaris Therapeutics, the first company that I founded three and a half years ago to develop a new treatment for vitiligo. I am excited to share that an agreement was announced today whereby Villaris Therapeutics will be acquired by Incyte!
I am excited to announce that we have received a 5-year P50 grant from the NIH/NIAMS that will establish the Vitiligo Center of Research Translation (VCORT) here at UMass Chan to advance our vitiligo research. The objective of the VCORT is to conduct exceptional translational science that reveals key mechanistic insights in a diverse, informed, and highly collaborative environment.
This study requires a large number of volunteers, so we are reaching out to gather information on the feasibility of recruiting participants. This will only work if we can get many volunteers to participate and stay in the study for the full period.
RSVP study is specifically for those who have treatment-resistant vitiligo that is STABLE, or not changing for at least 1 year. The process being tested is to transplant pigment cells from one part of the body without vitiligo to another part that is affected by vitiligo.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the UMass Chan Medical School (UMass Chan), Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center in Worcester, MA. The visit gave me the privilege to interview Dr. John E. Harris, about his research, tour his lab, and even learn from his team of researchers. The session was not only educational but also an eye opener. I wanted to share what I learnt with others who follow his research.
Incyte decided to run a Phase 3 Clinical Trial in over 600 patients all over the world, with the goal of supporting an application to the FDA (and the European equivalent, the EMA) to approve the treatment for patients. This means it would be available for prescription from the pharmacy, and should be covered by health insurance companies, as it would become the first and only FDA-approved treatment to reverse the effects of vitiligo! Well, we recently heard (although the data isn’t publicly available yet) that the results of the Phase 3 trial were excellent!
As a THANK YOU to all who have supported us over the past few years, we decided to name some of the equipment that we recently purchased using your donations after the donors who sent us some, actually any, amount of funding. We needed this equipment because our older stuff was either broken, or otherwise slowing us down. So, if you sent us ANYTHING, from $1 to much, much more, we put your name in a virtual hat and randomly selected names (and sometimes pictures, depending on the wishes of the donor) to put on 4 pieces of large equipment that we recently purchased for our lab.
2020 was a difficult year for so many of us, with COVID-19 creating a pandemic that we have not seen for over 100 years. In the spring, many wondered how having vitiligo would influence the effect of the virus, such as getting more severe effects from the virus, or whether vitiligo might get worse during an infection with it.
I have always thought that vitiligo was beautiful, including the many patterns that form on individuals with different skin colors, shades, and hues. Vitiligo can appear on any part of the body, in many different shapes and forms. It is most frequent on the face and genitals, then the hands and feet, and then the rest of the body. One woman outlined all of her spots with a pen, which I thought was really cool and I included her picture in my blog about vitiligo and tattoos here (with her permission, of course). Since I have seen many patients over many thousands of visits in my Vitiligo Clinic, I have seen a LOT of patterns, but I still see new ones all the time. It’s one of the things that makes my job a whole lot of fun!
I am a physician-scientist who focuses my clinical and research efforts on vitiligo, and therefore I think about this disease a lot – all the time, in fact. Therefore I thought it would be helpful to share my thoughts with others who are interested in vitiligo as well, particularly the patients who suffer from it and their loved ones. I want to make clear that while I am affiliated with many vitiligo organizations, my comments in this blog are my own, and do not reflect the opinions of those organizations. In addition, my research is largely focused on finding new treatments, and ultimately a cure, for vitiligo. This work is supported by a number of sources, including pharmaceutical companies, which by definition creates potential conflicts of interest. In full disclosure, here is a list of our vitiligo research supporters. Please know that, to the best of my ability, all of my comments are unbiased reflections of my understanding of vitiligo as both a physician and scientist. I do not permit advertisements on my website, and do not endorse companies or products that may advertise on other sites that may be referenced here.