Michael Welsh, MD, professor of internal medicine at the UI Carver College of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has been named a finalist for the $1 million Sanford Lorraine Cross Award, which honors lifesaving breakthroughs and innovations in medical science. Welsh was nominated for his pioneering work on mutations of the CFTR gene that have helped pave the way for highly effective treatments for cystic fibrosis,

Welsh, who is director of the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute at the UI, discovered that the CFTR gene instructs a cell to make a channel for chloride, which is disrupted by inherited mutations in cystic fibrosis. This discovery provided a blueprint for therapeutic developments that now provide effective treatments for 90% of people with cystic fibrosis (CF). The winner of the Sanford Lorraine Cross Award will be announced in a ceremony December 8 in Sioux Falls, S.D., headquarters for Sanford Health, which awards the prize.

Learn more:

• Dr. Welsh’s Cystic Fibrosis research
• Univeristy of Iowa Cystic Fibrosis research (Medicine Iowa, Spring 2018)