Ronald G. Crystal, MD
Ronald G. Crystal, MD, is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he is also Bruce Webster Professor of Internal Medicine. After earning a BA in physics from Tufts University, an MS in physics and an MD from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Crystal served as Chief of the Pulmonary Branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. In 1993 he joined the faculty at Weill Cornell, initially focusing research on the pathogenesis and therapy of inflammatory diseases of the lung. In the late 1980s, Dr. Crystal shifted his focus to gene therapy. He was the first to use a recombinant virus as a vehicle for in vivo gene therapy, and has carried out human trials of gene therapy for cystic fibrosis, cardiac ischemia, cancer, and central nervous system disorders. Recent studies from his laboratory have focused on using viral gene transfer vectors as platform strategies for Friedreich’s ataxia, Alzheimer’s disease and vaccines against addiction.