Chances are even if you don’t know what vitiligo is, you know someone who has it. The common autoimmune skin condition impacts one in 100 people, causing them to lose pigment and develop white spots on their face and body. In a new Voices of UMassMed podcast interview, John Harris, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine and director of the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at UMass Medical School, talks about the stigma associated with having vitiligo and explains the promising research he’s working on to find better treatments for patients.
“What’s exciting is we’re understanding now the pathways and the tools that the immune system is using to kill these cells, and there are existing drugs and others that we’re developing that block those tools from developing,” said Dr. Harris, one of the country’s leading experts on vitiligo.
Listen to the full podcast at https://www.umassmed.edu/news/voices. You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes by searching Voices of UMassMed. To share feedback and ideas for future episodes, e-mail the Office of Communications at UMassChanCommunications@umassmed.edu.
