Michael Girardi, FAAD

Michael D. Girardi, MD, is the Evans Professor of Dermatology and vice chair for faculty development and scientific innovation at Yale School of Medicine. He is medical director of Yale Medicine Dermatology’s Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP) Immunotherapy Program and Phototherapy Center at Yale New Haven Hospital, and co-director of the Yale Cutaneous Lymphoma Group.

A physician–scientist, translational researcher, and clinical leader in treating cutaneous lymphoma, Dr. Girardi cares for patients with advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), graft-versus-host disease, and related immune-mediated conditions, while directing programs that bring laboratory discoveries into clinical practice.

For Dr. Girardi, the commitment to helping people who have skin cancer is personal as well as professional. After losing a family member to malignant melanoma as a child, he developed a lasting determination to help patients facing cancer. “There is no doubt that the experience has stayed with me and has motivated me to help cancer patients in multiple ways,” he says. “Ultimately, having a positive effect on patients’ lives is what matters most to me.”

Yale’s ECP Immunotherapy Program is internationally recognized for advancing the use of extracorporeal photopheresis for advanced CTCL, graft-versus-host disease, and selected immune conditions associated with solid-organ transplantation. Through this program, Dr. Girardi integrates patient care with clinical investigation directed toward making immunotherapies more personalized, effective, and tolerable.

“What I strive to do in the clinic and in the lab is to use technology to help people who sometimes feel hopeless,” Dr. Girardi says.

Dr. Girardi leads a highly collaborative research program focused on skin cancer biology, tumor immunology, cutaneous lymphoma genetics, therapeutic engineering, and translational oncology. For more than two decades, his laboratory has investigated how local immune cells influence cancer development and progression, translating these discoveries into new diagnostic platforms, targeted therapies, precision immunotherapies, antibody–drug conjugates, and biodegradable nanoparticle delivery systems. His work has helped define the roles of gamma delta T cells, Langerhans cells, CD8-positive T cells, innate lymphoid cells, and NKG2D-ligand pathways in cutaneous immune surveillance and carcinogenesis.

“I hope these technologies will one day make cancer treatments safer and more effective,” Dr. Girardi says.

His current translational efforts include precision immunotherapies and antibody–drug conjugates for T-cell malignancies, including therapies directed against T-cell receptor V-beta subfamilies, as well as bioadhesive biodegradable nanoparticle systems designed to prevent and locally treat skin cancer. He is an inventor on seven issued biomedical patents, with five additional patent applications pending, and is a cofounder of Yale biotechnology companies including Stradefy Biosciences and Artelis Biopharma.

Dr. Girardi has received national and institutional recognition for scientific discovery, therapeutic innovation, and leadership in dermatology and cutaneous lymphoma. His recent honors include the 2025 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Translational Research Program Award, which supports novel therapeutic strategies for T-cell lymphoma, and the 2025 American Cancer Society BrightEdge Entrepreneur Program Award for translational cancer-therapy innovation.

He is a two-time recipient of the Yale Blavatnik Award in Innovation, having received the honor in 2017 and 2023 for therapeutic innovation in T-cell malignancies. Additional recognition includes the 2020 Cutaneous Lymphoma Foundation Catalyst Award, the 2018 Journal of Immunology Pillar of Immunology recognition, the 2017 Zeligman Lectureship Award in Cutaneous Lymphoma from Johns Hopkins University, the 2017 Spatz Foundation Award for Cutaneous Lymphoma, and the 2022 R. S. Evans Endowed Professorship at Yale University. He has also been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.