| 0s | So I do see your old eczema. |
| 2s | Yes. You know still have... |
| 4s | My patient came in with severe eczema |
| 5s | |
| 6s | It never went away, in fact it got worse over time. |
| 9s | Red, scaly, cracked, oozing skin |
| 12s | virtually from head to toe. |
| 14s | Couldn't go out and play as a child, |
| 15s | |
| 18s | Eczema affects anywhere from 10 to 20% |
| 20s | |
| 21s | It's a very, very common disease. |
| 23s | All therapies up to this point, |
| 24s | whether it's topical steroids or, uh, |
| 27s | other, newer drugs that are coming out |
| 29s | really try to suppress the immune system. |
| 31s | And that's been the traditional strategy. |
| 35s | But we've actually taken a very different approach. |
| 36s | And we thought why don't we actually try to boost |
| 39s | another part of the immune system, namely |
| 41s | Natural Killer cells, or NK cells, |
| 43s | which has really been shown to be very important in |
| 46s | |
| 48s | Well how did we make the link? |
| 49s | Patients with eczema actually have a lot of trouble |
| 52s | fighting off viral infections in the skin. |
| 54s | So the idea here was to really just boost NK cells |
| 57s | and then bring the immune system back in balance |
| 60s | And in fact that's what we did |
| 61s | and we showed in mice, definitively, |
| 62s | that this actually improves eczema. |
| 64s | So we think that this might be an alternative treatment |
| 67s | for patients with eczema in the clinic. |
| 70s | It's actually a short leap to take this into humans. |
| 73s | Um, so, really there are already drugs out there |
| 76s | |
| 77s | So we could either use one of those drugs, |
| 79s | or even design our own drug to boost this. |
| 82s | Every, literally every single day I'm, like, |
| 84s | 'Is it going to come back, is it going to come back?' |
| 86s | |
| 87s | I've been treating eczema for a very long time |
| 90s | and it wasn't until actually we were able to get patients |
| 92s | |
| 94s | especially those with severe disease, |
| 96s | that I came to recognize how much it was |
| 97s | Really affecting their lives. |
| 99s | Patients could finally get out in public for the first time, |
| 102s | go about doing the things that they always wanted to do, |
| 105s | that they were afraid to do. |
