Michael Girardi, MD

Michael Girardi, MD, is the director of Yale Medicine Dermatology’s ECP (Photopheresis) Immunotherapy Program, which is internationally recognized for developing the immunotherapy treatment photopheresis for advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, graft-versus host disease and organ transplant rejection.

“What I enjoy about my job is using technology to relieve suffering and help people who sometimes feel hopeless,” Dr. Girardi says.

A professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Girardi also studies the development of skin cancer and works to discover new ways to prevent it. He recently received an innovation award as a co-developer of a new formulation for sunscreen that does not penetrate the skin. “I hope the technology will one day make sunscreens safer and more effective,” Dr. Girardi says.

Preventing skin cancer is important to him on a personal level, too, after losing a family member to malignant melanoma as a child. “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 the most to me.”