Q&A with Dr. Ali Nili: A Targeted Approach for Treating a Rare Autoimmune Disease
December 11, 2024Dr. Ali Nili has helped treat many patients with pemphigus vulgaris, which causes painful blisters on the skin and inside the mouth, and he now hopes to develop a novel targeted treatment for the autoimmune disease at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
While working in Razi Hospital, the largest specialized skin center in Iran, Ali Nili, MD, helped treat many patients with an autoimmune disease called pemphigus vulgaris, which causes painful blisters on the skin and inside the mouth.
These blisters occur when immune cells produce antibodies that mistakenly attack adhesive structures in the skin and mouth. Although it’s a rare disease, pemphigus is more common among people living in Iran, Israel, and some areas of the United States.
When Nili learned that a lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was working on developing a new treatment for pemphigus, he immediately applied for an open postdoctoral position. In 2024, he received a PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Drug Discovery for his research in that lab to develop a novel targeted treatment for pemphigus that specifically clears out the harmful immune cells without affecting or suppressing the entire immune system.
Watch this video to learn about Nili and his research.
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