Tina Lasisi

Tina Lasisi | U-M LSA Anthropology (umich.edu)

My primary focus is on understanding the diversity of human appearance, particularly hair and skin variation. My research lies at the intersection of human biology, biometric technology, dermatology, and aims to understand the broader implications of human variation across diverse populations. In my previous interdisciplinary collaborations, I have investigated the evolutionary advantages of tightly curled hair and developed standardized methodologies for studying hair curvature and cross-sectional shape. My ongoing work features strong interdisciplinary elements, bringing together experts from population genetics, computer science, dermatology, forensics, and more.

Building on this foundation, my laboratory will continue to delve into the complexities of human appearance, concentrating on several main areas: 1) developing innovative imaging and measurement tools for hair morphology, skin pigmentation, and biometric applications such as facial recognition, 2) investigating the evolutionary biology and genetics of pigmentation and hair across human populations and in deeper evolutionary time scales; and 3) examining intra-individual variation in these traits, including the roles of hormonal and epigenetic factors.

Dr. Richmond earned her undergraduate degree in Molecular & Cellular Biology from the Johns Hopkins University, and her doctoral degree in Pathology & Immunology from Boston University School of Medicine. She performed a postdoctoral fellowship in chemokine biology at Massachusetts General Hospital before moving to the Harris Lab at UMass to study chemokines in vitiligo, an autoimmune disease characterized by CD8+ T cell-mediated destruction of melanocytes. She has also studied formation of autoreactive resident memory T cells that make vitiligo refractory to treatment. Her laboratory now focuses on T cell migration and function in other autoimmune skin diseases and cancers including Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus, Morphea and T Cell Lymphoma.

Dr. Harris is the founding Director of the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center, founding director of the Autoimmune Therapeutics Institute, and Professor and Chair in the Department of Dermatology at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA. Dr. Harris directs the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at UMass Chan Medical School, which incorporates a specialty clinic for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with vitiligo, as well as a vitiligo research laboratory. He uses basic, translational, and clinical research approaches to better understand autoimmunity in vitiligo, with a particular focus on developing more effective treatments.

He earned his MD and PhD degrees at UMass Chan Medical School, and his PhD thesis was focused on the loss of autoimmune tolerance in juvenile diabetes. He entered a combined research/residency program in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, and his postdoctoral research focused on the development of a mouse model of vitiligo with epidermal depigmentation. He now advises multiple graduate students, MD/PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows in his research laboratory at UMass Chan, and teaches medical students and residents in his vitiligo clinic. 

The Ridky Lab uses genetically-defined, engineered epithelial tissues as an experimental platform to study pathways driving human cancer initiation, stromal invasion, tumor-stroma interaction, metastasis, and maintenance of cancer stem cells. Tissue models of invasive malignancy are used to identify and validate new targets for potential therapeutics. To maximize the physiologic and medical relevance of our efforts, we develop experimental human tissue systems based on normal primary human cells established within an architecturally faithful native 3-D environment incorporating intact mesenchymal stroma and living stromal cells. Progression to cancer is driven by genetic changes initially identified in spontaneous tumors in humans and specifically engineered into the model tissues. Many experiments are conducted entirely in this organotypic environment, while in vivo studies utilize immunodeficient mice as hosts for the engineered tissues. These new models allow up to 10 alleles or more to be altered simultaneously in 1-2 days, permitting genetic experiments with an unprecedented degree of rapidity and complexity exceeding that previously possible in traditional genetic experimental organisms, such as transgenic mice. These new genetic models, which we refer to as "Multifunctional Human Tissue Genetics", have allowed us to directly convert multiple normal human tissues into invasive cancer via targeted, specific alterations in defined, medically-relevant genetic networks. Bioinformatics-intensive systems biology approaches are used to identify centrally-acting elements that are likely important for promoting cancer progression. To determine functional roles for specific tumor cell or stromal cell-intrinsic factors, we employ various genetic and protein level interventions, including multiplexed expression of tumor-associated mutant oncogenic drivers, tumor suppressors, and conditionally active proteins. Disruption of primary oncogenic signaling and non-oncogene addicted (NOA) pathways is achieved via RNA interference (RNAi), as well as chemical small molecule inhibitors and protein based biologic agents as a foundation for development of targeted molecular therapeutics.

Tamia Harris-Tryon, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist and the Thomas L. Shields Associate Professor in the Department of Dermatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She earned her MD and PhD at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed a residency in Dermatology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Certified by the American Board of Dermatology, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2014 and completed additional research training in the Howard Hughes laboratory of Dr. Lora Hooper. Dr. Harris-Tryon has created a unique research platform bridging the fields of immunology, microbiology, and metabolism, with a focus on the interface between the skin surface and the community of microbes that colonize the skin. Through research, the Harris-Tryon lab is unlocking how diet and the immune system alter skin biology and the impact of these changes on the skin microbiome. The Harris-Tryon lab is supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Harris-Tryon is the recipient of the American Academy of Dermatology Young Investigator Award and was inducted into the American Society of Clinical Investigators in 2024.

Dr. Scharschmidt is a dermatologist, microbiologist, and immunologist and currently serves as an Professor of Dermatology and Vice Chair of Research in the UCSF Department of Dermatology. She dedicates 80% of her time to research and the remaining time taking care of patients with severe inflammatory skin diseases. The central focus of her laboratory is to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate interactions between bacteria and the developing immune system, with a long-term goal of developing new therapeutic approaches based on this knowledge. Work in her lab leverages access to human samples, including human skin and blood, as well as corresponding microbiome samples to dissect the role of host-microbe crosstalk in normal cutaneous immune development and inflammatory skin disease. Dr. Scharschmidt also employs a reductionist approach, utilizing sophisticated immunological and microbiological tools in murine models to ask fundamental questions about mechanisms mediating the innate and adaptive immune responses to bacteria in early life.”

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/chemistry/faculty/townsend.php

Dr. Townsend is an expert in the chemical synthesis of biologically important molecules. A major topic of interest is the synthesis of homogeneous human milk oligosaccharides and related constructs to investigate their use as prebiotics in infant formula. He has numerous publications in premier international journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA), Angewandte Chemie International Edition and Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Dr. Myles was born and raised in Colorado, went to Colorado State for undergrad and Colorado for medical school. He completed an internal medicine residency at The Ohio State University prior to beginning fellowship training in allergy and clinical immunology at NIH. He began his career researching the mechanistic details of susceptibility to S. aureus skin infections.  Dr. Myles is a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who leads the Epithelial Therapeutics Unit in the evaluation of topical probiotic treatments for atopic dermatitis as well as searching for the environmental causes for the modern rise in eczema and other allergic diseases.

Dr. P’ng Loke completed his Ph.D. research at the University of Edinburgh on IL-4 activated macrophages responding to Brugia malayi filarial parasites in 2001. He then did postdoctoral research on costimulatory molecules at University of California-Berkeley and studied macrophage responses to different parasites at University of California-San Francisco. In 2009, he joined New York University School of Medicine as an assistant professor and was a tenured associate professor before he joined the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases as a senior investigator in 2020.The research goal of Dr. Loke’s lab is to understand the heterogeneity of type-2 immune responses during helminth infections. Although we have co-evolved with helminths and most infections are asymptomatic, these parasites can cause pathology in some individuals that either mount a response that is too strong or too weak during infection. An appropriately regulated type-2 response is critical in maintaining the balance between expelling enough parasites and tolerating the remaining parasites without excessive collateral tissue damage, in order to maintain the fitness of the host.

Melissa B. Manus, PhD, MSc (mbmanus.com)

My research applies ecological and evolutionary perspectives to answer questions about early life environments, the human microbiome, and health. During infancy, the microbiome is sensitive to environmental variation and directly interfaces with nutrition and immune system activity. Thus, identifying the drivers of infant microbiome development can help uncover the environmental origins of infant health disparities. I am particularly interested in the influence of social environments on infant microbiome development and associated health outcomes, as these dynamics are relevant to questions about human evolution as well as contemporary issues in global health. To date, my work has explored the microbiome across different geographic and cultural contexts in Madagascar, Mexico, the United States, the Philippines, Pakistan, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania. I am a strong proponent of making microbiome science more accessible to anthropologists and human biologists. To this end, my collaborators and I continue to develop "field-friendly" methods for sample collection alongside resources for analyzing microbiome data. Through this work we combine perspectives and tools from anthropology, microbial ecology, evolutionary biology, and bioinformatics.

Dr. Kwatra is the Joseph W. Burnett Endowed Professor and Chair in Dermatology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, USA. His areas of clinical expertise include chronic pruritus, prurigo nodularis, atopic dermatitis, and dermatology for ethnic skin.

He is funded by the National Institutes of Health and multiple foundations. He has been an author or co-author on over 250 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and is the secretary-treasurer of the Skin of Color Society and a member of the National Eczema Society Scientific and Medical Advisory Council.

He previously served as the Founding Director of the Johns Hopkins Itch Center. Dr. Kwatra also presented "Pathophysiology and Potential Therapeutic Targets of Prurigo Nodularis" as part of the IEC symposium Prurigo Nodularis at the AAD Global Day of Education in 2023.

Dr. Takeshita is a board-certified adult dermatologist and epidemiologist who leads an R01-funded research program that is dedicated to identifying, understanding and eliminating health and healthcare disparities related to dermatologic diseases, particularly chronic inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and acne. She uses quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research techniques to study health disparities and has authored many scientific publications on the topics of racial and ethnic health and healthcare disparities in psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and acne; psoriasis comorbidities; and comparative effectiveness research in psoriasis. Dr. Takeshita is a recipient of an Outstanding New Investigator Award and Distinguished Leader in Health Equity Award from the National Psoriasis Foundation, a Young Investigator Award from the American Academy of Dermatology, and a Young Physician-Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation. She receives/has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Dermatology Foundation, the National Psoriasis Foundation, the National Eczema Association, and the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance to support her independent research program.

Washington University in St Louis

“Dr. de Guzman Strong is an Associate Scientist/Professor of Dermatology and Medicine at Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences since 2022. She was an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Dermatology and Center for Pharmacogenomics and core faculty member in the Center for the Study of Itch & Sensory Disorders from 2010 - 2022. She earned her PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2002. She completed her post-doctoral work at the National Human Genome Research Institute in 2010. She mixes science with the family and dog and gardening.

The de Guzman Strong Lab performs state-of-the-art research in skin biology and health disparities research at Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University. The lab focuses on the genetics of enhancers and genes in the Epidermal Differentiation Complex (EDC) locus for epidermal development and homeostasis using genomics approaches in mice and humans.”

My career in genetics and research began with an interest in understanding the interplay between biology and the environmental conditions that contribute to disease. Over time, I’ve broadened my research interests to include genomics, genetic ancestry, racial disparities, personalized medicine and bioinformatics.

One of my areas of expertise is multi-omics (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, microbiome, proteomics and metabolomics). For more than 11 years, I’ve worked to integrate multi-omics with statistical genetics and bioinformatics methods to uncover the molecular architecture of medical conditions, such as asthma and asthma-related allergic diseases.

My lab performs a variety of computational and applied data analysis projects, including the development of statistical and genome informatics tools that enable multiethnic admixture, genome-wide association and omics integration studies of biomedical traits. Our goal is to develop an in-depth understanding of the intricate interactions between genomic variations and environmental exposure in the etiology of complex diseases — and then translate these findings into clinical practice through collaborations with clinicians.

Dr. Simpson practices medical dermatology with special interests in chronic inflammatory skin diseases and skin cancer. He is actively involved in clinical research and is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health and industry partners to study new approaches to chronic skin disease treatment and prevention.

Dr. Simpson's collaborations are global in scope and has been invited to present his research and approach to patient care at international conferences in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. He has published over 140 scientific articles in several high-impact peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. 

As part of his commitment to lessen the burden of atopic dermatitis (eczema) worldwide, Dr. Simpson is dedicated to identifying and improving quality of care for patients with atopic dermatitis. He is the director of the Frances J. Storrs and Jon M. Hanifin CLEAR Eczema Center at OHSU. Furthermore, he supports patient advocacy by serving as the Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the National Eczema Association.  He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Harmonizing Outcome Measures in Eczema (HOME) - a volunteer group of patients, providers, and other stakeholders whose mission is to improve the quality of eczema research to better suit the needs of patients and policy-makers.

Angel Byrd | Howard Profiles

Dr. Byrd was born and raised in Edwards and Jackson, Mississippi.  She obtained her BS (’04) from Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi and MD,PhD (’16) from Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She completed an Ethnic Skin Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) under the direction of Dr. Ginette Okoye. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at Howard University College of Medicine and Adjunct Assistant Professor at JHUSOM (Departments of Dermatology) where her work centers on the establishment of tissue biorepositories to understand the immunopathological mechanisms contributing to skin of color diseases, particularly among African American patients with Hidradenitis suppurativa. 

Her main research focus is elucidating the unreported roles of neutrophils and the innate immunity in the induction of local and systemic immune dysregulation. Dr. Byrd leads multidisciplinary collaborative projects with the overarching goal of establishing a scientifically-driven approach to treatment options for patients suffering from these debilitating diseases. Of much importance, she continues to pay-it-forward along her journey devoting time to training and investing in the next generations of scientists and physician scientists as well as engaging in community outreach.

She is the inaugural recipient of the Skin of Color Society Career Development Award and the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) Freinkel Diversity Fellowship Award.  She has also received the American Skin Association Milstein Research Scholar Award for Melanoma/Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer, Mary Kay-SID Skin Health/Skin Disease Research Grant, as well as the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Award (funded by Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation), has contributed to the scientific literature, given numerous lectures, national/international talks, and has been featured on the BET 33rd Annual UNCF An Evening of Stars® international program, recognizing her as one who is “changing the face of science, one mind at a time.

Carmelo Carmona-Rivera, Ph.D. | About NIAMS | NIAMS (nih.gov)

Carmelo Carmona-Rivera, Ph.D., received his doctoral degree from the University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine, where he worked on the biochemistry aspects of a genetic condition called Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS). Subsequently, Dr. Carmona-Rivera participated in research under the mentorship of Dr. William Gahl at NHGRI that identified a novel causing-gene of HPS. He joined the Systemic Autoimmunity Branch at the NIAMS in 2013, where he is now a Staff Scientist.

Dr. Carmona-Rivera focuses on the cellular, biochemical, and molecular aspects of neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation and its impact on autoinflammatory/autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), vasculitis, and hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). He has led research involving identifying important players in joint degradation in RA, signatures/pathways involved in HS skin manifestation, and NET-related proteins implicated in organ damage in SLE.

Among his honors and awards are the NIH Merit Award in 2019 for his contribution to the understanding of autoimmune diseases, the Young Investigator Award from the Neutrophil Conference in 2018, and multiple awards from the NIAMS for his outstanding research.

Dr Christos Zouboulis - LPG Medical

Dr. Christos C. Zouboulis is Director of the Departments of Dermatology, Venereology, Allergology and Immunology, Staedtisches Klinikum Dessau and Founding Professor of Dermatology and Venereology at the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane. He joined the Department of Dermatology, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA for a research fellowship on molecular biology, and the Department of Dermatology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA as well as the Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA for clinical research before returning as faculty at the Department of Dermatology, Freie Universitaet Berlin.

He currently serves as President of the European Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation (EHSF) e.V., Honorary President of the European Society of Preventive, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine (ESAAM), Board member of the European Reference Network of Rare and Complex Skin Diseases (ERN Skin) and the International Society on Behçet’s Disease, coordinator of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Task Force on Acne, Rosacea and Hidradenitis Suppurativa, and Editor of the EADV News. He was elected Prof. honoraire of the University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France, Dr. h.c. of the National Kapodistria University of Athens, European Union Teaching Professor at the Europa University of Kaunas, Lithuania, and has been Visiting Professor of the Shanghai Jiao Tong Medical University, China.

Dr. Zouboulis received the silver medal of the Wroclaw University, Wroclaw, Poland, the Medal of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel and is honorary member of the French, the Hungarian, the Italian, the Lithuanian, the Maltese and the Portuguese Dermatological Societies. He has an extensive publication record on skin endocrinology, the pilosebaceous unit and its diseases, skin stem cells, molecular ageing, cryosurgery and rare skin diseases. He has received numerous awards, including the Oskar Gans Prize, the EADV Research Fellowship, the Felix Wankel Animal Protection Research Prize, the Paul Gerson Unna Prize, the Nékám Award of the Hungarian Dermatological Society, and the Springer Prize for Dermatology.

Margaret Lowe PharmD, PhD is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She leads a team focused on translational bench research in human immunology. She is specifically engaged in research on the inflammatory skin disease, hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) due to its unmet clinical need. Her primary goal is to determine whether certain immune subsets are drivers of HS pathology as a means for prioritizing potential therapeutic targets.

Dr. Petukhova is a genetic epidemiologist in the Departments of Dermatology and Public Health at NYU Langone Health.  She received academic training at Columbia University in Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Data Science. As a graduate student she identified several new genes that contribute to rare hair diseases and advanced our understanding of the genetic architecture of a common autoimmune disease, alopecia areata. The clinical focus of her NIH-funded research program is hidradenitis suppurativa. In addition to her applied research on gene discovery and clinical translation in hidradenitis suppurativa, she is actively engaged in advancing health equity in genomic medicine, promoting the equitable engagement of participants in precision medicine research, and leveraging digital biobank data to reduce the burden of skin diseases.

Ricardo Cibotti is the Director of the Skin Immunology and Diseases Program at the NIAMS/NIH.

Program Director,

National Institute of Arthritis,

Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases,

National Institutes of Health

Bio:

Now : Director for Skin Repair, Pigmentation, and Appendages Program, NIAMS/NIH

Before:  Scientific Review Officer for Arthritis, Connective Tissue, and Skin Study Section, CSR/NIH

Earlier: Principal Investigator, Faculty,

    University of Maryland School of Medicine 

    Area of Research: Cell-ECM Interactions and Integrins  

Peter J Koch, PhD, is the Program Director of the Epidermis, Dermis and Skin Senses Program.  He joined the Division of Extramural Research at NIAMS in 2023. His prior positions include tenured Professorships (University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Center; Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University) in Dermatology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Ophthalmology. Dr. Koch has been a tenured Professor from 2012-2023. Dr. Koch has a broad interest in skin biology, stem cell biology, individualized medicine, and skin diseases (including skin cancer).

Donald Glass, M.D., Ph.D.: Dermatology | Skin Disorders | UT Southwestern Medical Center (utswmed.org)

Donald Glass II, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Dermatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. 

He earned his combined medical and doctoral degree in molecular and human genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his dermatology residency at UT Southwestern and then joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2011. He is Board certified by the American Board of Dermatology.

Dr. Glass is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society of Investigative Dermatology, the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the Dallas County Medical Society, and the National Medical Association, and is a Past President of the Skin of Color Society.

His clinical and research expertise centers on keloids (exuberant scarring of the skin). He has delivered a number of presentations, contributed to the book Moschella and Hurley's Dermatology, and published numerous academic articles.

In 2019, Dr. Glass was named a Texas Monthly Super Doctor Rising Star; he was included in D Magazine's Best Doctors list for 2021 and 2022.

The skin and skeleton would seem to be very stable parts of the human body. Contrary to appearances, however, both skin and skeleton are in a nearly constant state of flux. The bone mass in skeletal structures is the result of a shifting balance between bone formation and bone resorption, while the skin is constantly sloughed and often subjected to injuries, which must rapidly be repaired. The Reichenberger laboratory is interested in learning about the complex processes required for generating and maintaining the skin and bones. To find out how the mechanisms operate in a healthy person, they study human genetic disorders in which they are disrupted.

In the Reichenberger laboratory, we are interested in dermal and skeletal development and homeostasis. We are currently studying several specific human genetic disorders. For some disorders we have identified disease genes while search for new genes in other disorders. Disease genes interrupt the normal cellular pathways governing developmental and tissue remodeling processes, leading to abnormal tissue behavior.

As an experienced senior executive in the healthcare industry, I am dedicated to fostering innovation by embracing challenges in the development of groundbreaking products that significantly impact healthcare, while maintaining rigorous scientific and clinical standards for validation & oversight. With a background as a physician and translational scientist (MD PhD), I bring a wealth of know-how from various sectors, including all stages of R&D operations, business strategy, marketing, and product development.

Over the years, I have proven to be a strategic, results-oriented leader, contributing to the growth and development of pharmaceutical, medical device, and cosmetic companies, from startups to corporate entities. My leadership style is characterized by optimism, collaboration, and a passion for innovation. I am adept at fostering a culture of inclusivity across the company and possess exceptional interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills.
My skills include planning/overseeing laboratory and clinical R&D activities, brand/product strategy, claims/marketing execution, consumer marketing, legal and regulatory as well as medical/clinical affairs. I am proficient in IP and patent matters, identifying gaps in needs using critical white space analysis, and ensuring the achievement of key business objectives. My decisive leadership maximizes product portfolio success through innovation, growth and sustainability through key internal developments and external partnerships. Internationally recognized as an expert in skin health/ healing, dermal fibrosis, skin substitutes, wound infection detection, implant design/integration, and device-assisted tissue repair (biophotonic & electrical stimulation) I have overseen a multidisciplinary research and clinical lab capable of conducting in silico, in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo clinical trials.

Valerie Horsley began her scientific training as an undergraduate at Furman University and was awarded her Ph.D. from Emory University. After completing a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation postdoctoral fellowship in Elaine Fuchs’ laboratory at Rockefeller University, Valerie started her independent laboratory at Yale University in the Department of Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology. Horsley’s lab uses the mouse as a genetic model system to study how adult stem cells within epithelial tissues maintain tissue homeostasis, can contribute to wound healing, and can be a factor in cancer formation. She is now the Maxine F. Singer Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale, has received a number of awards including the Pew Scholar Award, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Supp received her Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed a fellowship in Neonatology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Her interest in translational research brought her to Shriners Hospitals for Children-Cincinnati, a pediatric burn hospital, where she gained expertise in skin tissue engineering and wound healing research. She is currently a Research Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and is still affiliated with Shriners as a Scientific Staff Member. Her research has focused on wound healing for the past two decades, with the goals of replacing skin lost to injury via tissue engineering, suppressing abnormal scar formation, and promoting regenerative healing. Keloid disorder has been of particular interest to Dr. Supp’s lab, which seeks to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms and understand the potential therapeutic role of vitamin D in keloid pathology. Her research is supported by grants from the US Department of Defense, NIH, Shriners Hospitals for Children, and industry partnerships.

The lab of Dr. Amanda Nelson is focused on understanding the skin-specific and immune mechanisms underlying inflammatory skin diseases associated with sebaceous glands and hair follicles, such as acne vulgaris and hidradenitis suppurativa.

The lab is also interested in the role of innate immunity, specifically TLR signaling pathways, in normal keratinocytes and in non-melanoma skin cancer. Another focus of the laboratory is understanding the relationship between the skin microbiome, host immune response and changes that occur with the development of skin diseases or the treatment of skin diseases. Translational studies use cell culture, mouse models and samples from patients. The group uses its varied expertise in cell and molecular biology approaches and human subjects research to investigate the pathogenesis of skin diseases.

Dennis Roop, Ph.D., is the associate director of Gates Institute at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He is also professor of dermatology and holds the John S. Gates Endowed Chair in Stem Cell Biology. He previously served as the Founding Director of the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine, which transitioned to the Gates Institute in 2022. Prior to coming to Colorado in 2007, he was professor of molecular and cellular biology and dermatology and director of the Center for Cutaneous Molecular Biology at the Baylor College of Medicine for 19 years. Prior to that, Roop worked at the National Cancer Institute.

Roop is one of the first investigators to begin using molecular techniques to study how the skin forms during normal embryonic development.  He has identified many of the genes required for normal skin development and discovered that defects in some of these genes cause inherited skin diseases characterized by a very fragile skin, which blisters easily and may result in neonatal death.

Sancy Leachman, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist who chairs the Department of Dermatology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and is the director of the Melanoma Research Program at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. The inaugural recipient of the John D. Gray Endowed Chair in Melanoma Research and Chair of the Southwest Oncology Group Melanoma Prevention Working Group, she is a dermatologist using basic science research and state-of-the-art technology to combat skin cancer.

Her clinical interests include skin cancers, especially melanoma, pigmentary disorders that result from abnormalities of melanocytes such as vitiligo, and genetic disorders that involve the skin such as pachyonychia congenita, Cowden syndrome, and other cutaneous cancer syndromes.