Page 20 - Gates-AnnualReport-2018

Drs. Emily Warshauer and Julio Salas in front of Dr. Salas’ first dermatology clinic in Monterrey, Mexico
COLLABORATION HEADED SOUTH
In 2017, Emily Warshauer, M.D., a faculty member in the Department of Dermatology, helped make a fascinating discovery. Genetic analysis of several Colorado Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) patients suggested that they may be related to hundreds of EB patients in Mexico who share the same founder mutation—and may well be descended from a group of Sephardic Jewish families who fled the Spanish Inquisition 300 to 400 years ago. During 2018, Dr. Warshauer in collaboration with Adam Brown, founder of the Avotaynu DNA Project with expertise in Jewish population genetics, and other scientists, genealogists and historians, expanded the study to include EB patients in Latin America. Genealogical tests of new EB samples gathered by clinicians in Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Argentina and Paraguay revealed many with substantial Sephardic Jewish ancestry.
This research project was initially proposed by Steve Berman, M.D., founder of the EB Center of Excellence at the Children’s Hospital Colorado, and includes a collaboration with Julio Salas, M.D., of Monterrey, Mexico. In 1994, Dr. Salas along with some local dermatologists and families with EB began a support group to serve six families. The organization now numbers more than 500 families across the country. In Fall 2018, Salas visited the Gates Center to discuss his research and patients, and later hosted Dr. Warshauer, who traveled to visit patients requiring wound care, hand reconstructive surgeries, squamous cell carcinoma surgeries, esophageal dilation and other treatments for their needs.
Finding sufficient patients for a clinical trial for an orphan disease such as EB is a real challenge, so this was an auspicious development toward identifying future potential participants.
20 Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine