ICIS member Professor Akiko Iwasaki, Yale University School of Medicine, and 2019 ICIS Milstein Award winner, has been named to the List of 100 Most Influential People. By Anthony Fauci, April 17, 2024, “Her expertise in innate immunity—or how the immune system first reacts to pathogens—is providing key insights into Long COVID, validating patient experiences and informing treatment strategies.” The honor recognizes her pioneering research into post-acute infection syndromes like Long COVID.
She has also been named to TIME100 Health, the magazine’s list of the most influential people in health in 2024. “Building on their years of research on other viruses, Iwasaki and her colleagues are working on a new approach to COVID-19 vaccination: administering booster doses via the nose. The idea, Iwasaki says, is to help the body build up additional protection where it’s needed most, blanketing the nose—through which the virus often gets in—with its own defense system. In 2021, she co-founded a company, Xanadu Bio, that is trying to bring nasal vaccines for COVID-19, the flu, and RSV to market.” Read More