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KEYNOTE GUEST SPEAKERS
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David L. Mitchell
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States
Howard Chang
Stanford University, United States
Jean Krutmann
IUF - Leibniz-Research Institute for Environmental Medicine at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany
Nina Jablonski
The Pennsylvania State University, United States
Roger Hanlon
Marine Biological Laboratory, and Brown University, United States
Yann Barrandon
University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland
SPEAKERS
Please click on speaker's name to view profile.
Ai-Young Lee
Dongguk University, Republic of Korea
Akimichi Morita
Nagoya City University, Japan
Alain Taieb
Bordeaux University Hospitals, France
Amit Pandya
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States
Anja Bosserhoff
University of Regensburg, Germany
Boon Kee Goh
Skin Physicians @ Mt. Elizabeth, Singapore
Boris Bastian
University of California, San Francisco, United States
Caroline Le Poole
Loyola University Chicago, United States
Chee Leok Goh
National Skin Centre, Singapore
Cheng-Che Lan
Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Taiwan ROC
Chikako Nishigori
Kobe University, Japan
Colin Goding
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Davinder Parsad
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India
Deepak Parikh
Bombay Hospital, India
Desmond J. Tobin
University of Bradford, United Kingdom
Dorothy Bennett
St. Georges, University of London, United Kingdom
Emi Nishimura
Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan
Evangeline Handog
Asian Hospital and Medical Center, Philippines
Eyal Gottlieb
Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, United Kingdom
Fabian Filipp
University of California Merced, United States
Fatimata Ly
Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal
Frances Noonan
George Washington University, United States
Graça Raposo
Institut Curie- CNRS, France
Greg Barsh
Stanford University, United States
Hee-Young Kang
Ajou University School of Medicine, Republic of Korea
Hideya Ando
Okayama University of Science, Japan
Hiroaki Yamamoto
Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, Japan
Ian Jackson
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Iltefat Hamzavi
Henry Ford Hospital, United States
John E. Harris
University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States
José Carlos García-Borrón
University of Murcia, Spain
Kazumasa Wakamatsu
Fujita Health University School of Health Sciences, Japan
Kiyoshi Sato
Shiseido Co., Ltd., Japan
Kyoung-Chan Park
Seoul National University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea
Laurent Marrot
L'OREAL Research & Innovation, France
Leihong Flora Xiang
Huashan Hospital, People's Republic of China
Lionel Larue
Institut Curie- CNRS, France
Lluis Montoliu
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia, Spain
Lukas Sommer
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Marisol Soengas
Spanish Cancer Research Centre, Spain
Markus Böhm
University of Münster, Germany
Mauro Picardo
San Gallicano Dermatological Institute, Italy
Nanja van Geel
Ghent University, Belgium
Nawaf Al-Mutairi
Kuwait University, Kuwait
Nicholas Hayward
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Australia
Nikiforos Kollias
University of British Columbia, Canada
Nikolas Haass
University of Queensland, Australia
Paul Meredith
University of Queensland, Australia
Pearl Grimes
Vitiligo & Pigmentation Institute of Southern California, United States
Penpun Wattanakrai
Mahidol University, Thailand
Peter Hersey
The University of Sydney, Australia
Prasad Kumarasinghe
Royal Perth Hospital and Western Dermatology, Australia
Qing-Sheng Mi
Henry Ford Health System, United States
Rashmi Sarkar
Maulana Azad Medical College & LNJP Hospital, India
Richard Marais
CRUK Manchester Institute, United Kingdom
Richard Spritz
University of Colorado School of Medicine, United States
Richard Sturm
Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australia
Robert Ballotti
INSERM, France
Robert Schwartz
New Jersey Medical School, United States
Sandipan Dhar
Institute of Child Health, India
Sanjeev Mulekar
Henry Ford Hospital, United States
Somesh Gupta
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India
Stéphane Commo
L'Oréal Recherche & Innovation, France
Suat Hoon Tan
National Skin Centre, Singapore
Takahiro Kunisada
Gifu University, Japan
Thierry Passeron
University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France
Thomas Hornyak
VA Maryland Health Care System and University of Maryland, United States
Thomas Tueting
University of Bonn, Germany
Tobias Bald
University of Bonn, Germany
Tomohisa Hirobe
National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Japan
Wei Li
Chinese Academy of Sciences, People's Republic of China
William Pavan
National Institutes of Health, United States
Woraphong Manuskiatti
Mahidol University, Thailand
Yong Kwang Tay
Changi General Hospital, Singapore
Zalfa Abdel-Malek
University of Cincinnati, United States
Ze'ev Ronai
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, United States
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Alain Taieb
Bordeaux University Hospitals, France
Dr Taieb is Professor of Dermatology and Head of the Department of Dermatology and Pediatric Dermatology at Bordeaux University Hospitals. Dr Taieb studied pediatric dermatology under Prof J Maleville at Bordeaux Children's Hospital. He is a former research fellow of the Dept of Dermatology, University of Michigan Medical school, Ann Arbor, USA. He is the organiser of the course of Pediatric Dermatology, Arcachon, a yearly event, since 1992. He has authored and co-authored more than 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals and more than 40 chapters in multiauthored books . Co-author of "History of Atopic Dermatitis" with Drs Wallach and Tilles, Masson, 2004, and Dermatologie Néonatale, with Dr Enjolras, Vabres and Wallach, Maloine, 2009, and Vitiligo with Dr Picardo, Springer 2010. His major topics of interest are pediatric dermatology and the genodermatoses, atopic dermatitis and chronic inflammatory skin disorders, and pigment cell disorders. Coordinator since 2005 of a national reference centre for rare skin diseases. ILDS certificate of appreciation 2009 for recognition of outstanding contribution to dermatology, and American Skin Association achievement award 2012 (pigment cell disorders).
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Amit Pandya
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States
Title of talk: Evaluation and Management of Post-inflammatory Hyperpigmentation
Dr. Amit G. Pandya is a Professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from UT Southwestern Medical School and completed residencies in Internal Medicine at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas and in Dermatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Pandya has a special interest in vitiligo, melasma and other pigmentary disorders. His ongoing clinical research is focused on the epidemiology, measurement, quality of life, diagnosis and treatment of these cutaneous disorders.
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Andrzej T. Slominski
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, United States
Title of talk: Sensing the Environment: Regulation of Body Homeostasis by the Pigmentary System
Obtained MD from Medical University of Gdansk in 1979 and PhD in 1983. Trained in pigment cell biology as postdoctoral fellow at Yale University (1985-1989) by John Pawelek and Aaron Lerner. Board certified in Anatomic Pathology, and in Dermatopathology in 1997 (trained by Martin Mihm and Andrew Carlson). Tenured Professor of Pathology and Medicine at the University of Tennessee HSC, and a Director of the Dermatopathology Fellowship. His laboratory has been supported by grants from the NSF and NIH. He is also practicing pathologist and dermatopathologist. He is a recipient of the William J. Cunliffe Prize (2004) and Aaron B Lerner (2008) awards, and of the Commander Cross of the Polonia Restituta (2009). The latter was in recognition of his involvement with Lech Walesa and Solidarity in struggle for democracy against the communist system in Poland.
Ad hoc reviewer for NIH, NSF, DOD and VA (USA) ISF (Israel), AWF (Austria), INCa and INSERM (France), HRB (Ireland), SNFS (Switzerland), Wellcome Trust Fund (UK), NCN (Poland). Member of the editorial board of Experimental Dermatology, Journal of Pineal Research, PLOS ONE, Polish Annals of Medicine. He was a member of the Member of Steering Committee of the Society for Melanoma Research, served as the secretary/ treasurer for the PASPCR (208-2013) and is a secretary of the IFPCS (2011-2014). He organized or co-organized many national and international scientific conferences. He published 279 peer reviewed papers (for details see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrzej_Slominski/?ev=hdr_xprf).
Main scientific contributions: 1) defining skin as a neuroendocrine organ including discoveries of regulated cutaneous CRF, POMC systems operating in HPA-like fashion, and of local serotoninergic and melatoninergic systems; 2) defining pigment cells as sensory and regulatory cells with neuroendocrine capabilities; 3) defining L-tyrosine and L-DOPA and hormone like regulators; and 4) discovery of new steroid/secosteroidogenic pathways activated by CYP11A1.
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Anja Bosserhoff
University of Regensburg, Germany
Title of talk: Role and Processing of miRs in Melanoma
Anja K. Bosserhoff, PhD, is professor of Molecular Pathology at the Institute of Pathology, University of Regensburg, Germany. Prof. Anja Bosserhoff`s strong interest in molecular processes related to physiological or pathophysiological conditions directed her to study Biology at the University of Bielefeld. She received her PhD from the University of Regensburg in 1995 and graduated summa cum laude. In 2002, she was appointed as Professor of Molecular Pathology at the University of Regensburg, and was for several years among the youngest Full Professors in Germany. Her scientific interests cover several aspects of cancer research like gene technology, studying gene expression and function, and translating basic science discoveries into clinical applications and therapies. Prof. Bosserhoff has a strong background in translational research that combines basic and clinical studies, while emphasizing the former.
Her studies on the molecular processes have uncovered fundamental molecular mechanisms that determine the physiology of normal cells and have provided insights into melanoma. She has more than 240 publications (cumulative impact 1178; h-score: 44). She further has written chapters on melanoma and melanoma research for several of the authoritative references and edited a book on "Molecular processes in melanoma" (Springer).
Recently, she initiated and now chairs the German Network on Melanoma Research supported by the German Cancer Aid. This is the first funded consortium in Germany focussing on melanoma research, and is successful in supporting research on this highly aggressive cancer. In addition, Professor Bosserhoff is founding member, treasurer and secretary of the Society of Melanoma Research, and steering committee member of the European Society of Pigment Cell Research.
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Ai-Young Lee
Dongguk University, Republic of Korea
Title of talk: Reduced H19 RNA in Melasma: Role of miR-675 Through its Direct Target
Ai-Young Lee is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology, Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. Dr. Lee graduated the Seoul National University College of Medicine, Korea and got the PhD degree at the same University. After taking a licence of dermatology specialist, Dr. Lee studied at the Department of Dermatology, Tokyo University College of Medicine, Japan for 1 year and at the Department of Dermatology, Washington University School of Medicine, United States for 1.5 years.
The research of Prof. Lee focuses on the pathogenesis and treatment of pigmentary skin disorders, particularly vitiligo and melasma. Current projects include pathomechanism investigation for melasma, development of alternative method for safety evaluation of cosmetics using melanocytes, and preclinical study for vitiligo treatment.
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Akimichi Morita
Nagoya City University, Japan
Title of talk: Environmental Factor and Pigmentation
Professor Akimichi Morita graduated from Nagoya City University and received his MD degree in 1989. He received his PhD in basic immunology at Aichi Cancer Center. He studied photobiology and photoimmunology under the supervision of Professor Jean Krutmann at Duesseldorf University as a Humboldt Foundation fellow where he discovered UVA1-mediated human T helper cell apoptosis as a fundamental mechanism of UVA1 phototherapy. He also trained under the supervision of Professor Akira Takashima at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and developed a Langerhans cell-targeted vaccination. He has introduced numerous standard phototherapies to Japan. Since 2003, he has been Professor and Chairman of the Department of Geriatric and Environmental Dermatology at Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences. His research interests include phototherapy, cutaneous immunology, and skin aging. He is author or co-author of more than 130 original articles in international journals and 20 review articles. He has served as a chief-in-editor of Journal of Dermatological Science from 2008 to 2013.
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Boon Kee Goh
Skin Physicians @ Mt. Elizabeth, Singapore
Title of talk: Pigmentary Challenges in Asian Skin
Dr Boon Kee Goh is the Consultant Dermatologist and Medical Co-director of Skin Physicians Pte Ltd. Prior to joining Skin Physicians, Dr Goh was the Chief of Pigment Clinic and Deputy Director of Research at the National Skin Centre, Singapore.
Dr Goh graduated from the University of Leeds (UK) with First Class Honours in Chemical Pathology and with the John Ingram Prize in Dermatology for his medical degree. Dr Goh completed his training in Internal Medicine and Dermatology in Singapore, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh).
Besides general dermatology, Dr Goh has special interests in pigmentary disorders and transplantation surgery for vitiligo. He started the transplant service for vitiligo in Singapore, and has successfully treated more than 400 cases of vitiligo with non-cultured cellular grafting. He has also instructed and trained specialists at the National Skin Centre on this procedure.
Apart from his clinical work, Dr Goh is active in research and has published extensively in the fields of pigmentary disorders, vitiligo and Darier's disease. He currently serves as the Organising President of IPCC 2014, the Vice-President of the League of ASEAN Dermatological Societies, Vice-Chairman of the Dermatological Society of Singapore, Council Member of the Asian Society for Pigment Cell Research, as well as a selection panelist for the Skin Research Grant in Singapore.
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Boris Bastian
University of California, San Francisco, United States
Title of talk: The Genetic Evolution of Melanocytic Neoplasms
Dr. Boris Bastian received his MD degree and Dr. med degree from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. After completing a residency in dermatology at the University of Wurzburg, he received additional training in dermatopathology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco before joining the institution's faculty. From 2010 through 2011 he served as the Chairman of the Department of Pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. From 2010 through 2013 he served as the President of the Society for Melanoma Research.
He is currently the Leader of the Cutaneous Oncology Program and the Gerson and Barbara Bakar Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco and has clinical responsibilities in the Dermatopathology Section of the Departments of Dermatology and Pathology, where he directs the molecular diagnostic laboratory of the Dermatopathology Section.
Dr. Bastian’s research focuses on the molecular genetics of cutaneous neoplasms, with a particular emphasis on the discovery of genetic alterations useful for diagnosis, classification, and therapy. His laboratory has contributed to the discovery of several genetic alterations in melanocytic neoplasia that are relevant for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes and for a molecular taxonomy of melanocytic neoplasia.
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Caroline Le Poole
Loyola University Chicago, United States
Title of talk: Experimental Basis For Hsp70iq435a Therapy to Treat Vitiligo
Dr. Caroline Le Poole studied Biology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and received a Ph.D. in Medicine from the Department of Dermatology at Amsterdam University, also in the Netherlands on "Aspects of Melanocytes in Relation to Vitiligo". She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from this Department. After further postdoctoral studies in Amsterdam and a short sabbatical at the CNRS in Orleans, France she obtained a Talent Stipend from the Dutch Organization for Pure Scientific Research (NWO), and came to the University of Cincinnati (OH) in the US to characterize differential gene expression in vitiligo melanocytes. She also worked on cytokine expression in reconstituted skin at the Shriners Burns Institute there before obtaining a Career Development Award from the Dermatology Foundation to investigate the autoimmune response in vitiligo. She has since moved to Chicago where she is a tenured Professor in the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at Loyola University Medical Center. Autoimmune recognition of melanocytes in vitiligo remains a primary research interest of Dr. Le Poole, as well as dendritic cell effector functions and immune recognition of tumor cells. The progressive loss of skin color as observed in vitiligo is considered a positive prognostic factor in patients with malignant melanoma, where the immune response all too often fails to clear patients of their tumor. By studying immune recognition of melanocytic cells in vitiligo and melanoma, Dr. Le Poole aims to contribute to the development of further treatment.
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David L. Mitchell
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States
Title of talk: The Photobiology of Melanoma in Fish Models: The Importance of UV Wavelength, DNA Damage and Gender on Melanoma Etiology
Dr. David Mitchell has been working on the etiology of skin cancer at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas since the late 1970's. His early work examined DNA damage and nucleotide excision repair in various cell lines and organisms to better understand sunlight-induced skin cancer. Important to his work was the development of immunoassays that detect and measure of a broad range of DNA damage, including the first quantitative methods for measuring (6-4) photoproducts in DNA. Early data from these techniques showed that the (6-4) photoproduct was repaired significantly faster than the cyclobutane dimer in mammalian cells, including those of murine origin. He did his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. James Cleaver where he learned the merit of asking a broad range of scientific questions and followed that with field research in Antarctica to study the effects of deozonation on marine ecosystems. Over the past 20 years Dr. Mitchell has been using platyfish and zebrafish to study melanoma. Using Xiphophorus he showed that UVA by itself is unable to induce melanoma and that UVB and the direct damage induced by UVB (cyclobutane dimers and (6-4) photproducts) are responsible for sunlight-induced melanoma. Most recently, Dr. Mitchell has discovered a very pronounced sex-bias for UV-induced (but not spontaneous) melanoma in the Xiphophorus model and has conducted experiments to explore the causes of this phenomenon. Over the past 35 years Dr. Mitchell has published over 200 articles and book chapters on a broad range of scientific topics.
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Chikako Nishigori
Kobe University, Japan
Title of talk: UV and Melanoma: Insights from Clinical View Points
Dr. Chikako Nishigori is a Professor and Chairman of Division of Dermatology at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine. She graduated from Kobe University Faculty of Medicine in 1980 and was trained as a dermatologist at Kyoto University. She developed her interest in photobiology- biological response to UV--and she has been studied on photocarcinogenesis under the supervision of Professor Imamura and Professor Takebe at Kyoto University and received her PhD at Kyoto University. Afterwards, she became interested in photoimmunology and she became a postdoctoral fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center under the supervision of Professor Margaret Kripke. Her research field is carcinogenesis, photobiology, pigment cell research, DNA repair and stress response at the skin including photaging. Recently she is focusing on the studies on melanomagenesis, especially the relevance of UV on melanomagenesis.
Now she serves as the President of Japanese Society of Pigment Cell research, the President of Japanese Society for Photobiology and Photomeidine.
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Colin Goding
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Title of talk: The Role and Regulation of MITF in Melanoma Heterogeneity
Colin Goding graduated from the University of Leeds, UK after studying microbiology. He subsequently entered the 3 year PhD program at the UK Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London where he studied adenovirus DNA replication. On moving to Pierre Chambon’s lab in Strasbourg, France, with a Royal Society Fellowship he next investigated the mechanisms underlying adenovirus gene expression. His work there led to him being offered a position to run his own lab at the Marie Curie Research Institute in Surrey, UK where he established a program of research examining basic mechanisms of transcription, and cell type-specific gene expression in melanocytes and melanoma. His work has continued on these two parallel research themes on his move in 2008 to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Oxford UK where his lab is particularly interested in the relationship between signal transduction and transcription that drives phenotypic heterogeneity in melanoma.
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Davinder Parsad
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India
Dr Davinder Parsad is currently working as Additional Professor at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India.
His special interests are the pathogenesis and management of vitiligo and other pigmentary disorders. He has published 105 papers in various International Journals (60 papers on vitiligo only).
Dr Davinder Parsad has written or co-written several chapters in major textbooks on pigmentary disorders and vitiligo. He has Chaired/co-chaired, presented invited/guest lectures, papers at more than 80 International conferences/meetings. He has received many awards/orations on his work on vitiligo.
He is presently President of the Asian Society for Pigment Cell Research. He is also council member of International Fedrarion of Pigment Cell Societies. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Pigmentary Disorders.
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Deepak Parikh
Bombay Hospital, India
Panel Discussion: Acquired Hypopigmentary Disorders in Children
Dr Deepak Parikh is Professor and Head Department of Paediatric Dermatology at Wadia Children Hospital Mumbai. He is currently Chairman of the Indian Society for Paediatric Dermatology and President of the Indian Association of Dermatologists Venereologists and Leprologists (IADVL).
He obtained MD in 1984 from Mumbai University. He joined as full time faculty at King Edward Memorial Hospital Mumbai and worked till 1990. He established department of paediatric dermatology at Wadia children hospital in 1990, the first of its kind in India. He was founder secretary and then President of Indian Society for Paediatric Dermatology (ISPD). IADVL honoured him with most prestigious "Ambady Oration" for his contribution in the field of paediatric dermatology in India.
His areas of interested are Atopic Dermatitis, Psoriasis and Pigmentary disorders in children.
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Desmond J. Tobin
University of Bradford, United Kingdom
Title of talk 1: So Many Roads to Melanin - How Important are Bone Morphogenetic Proteins in Regulating Human Cutaneous Pigmentation?
Title of talk 2: Neuroendocrine Control of Human Hair Pigmentation - An Update
Dr Desmond J. Tobin is Professor of Cell Biology and Director of the Centre for Skin Sciences (CSS) at University of Bradford - the largest academic center for skin and hair sciences in Britain. He holds a BSc from the National University of Ireland (Maynooth), a PhD from the University of London (St. John's Institute of Dermatology) and post-doctoral training from New York University Medical School's Dept. of Dermatology. Over the past 20 years he has researched in basic and applied skin/hair sciences, with a particular focus on the biology of human melanocytes/ pigmentation and hair growth disorders especially those with an immune basis (e.g., alopecia areata). His team was the first to identify antibodies to hair follicle-specific antigens in patients with acute alopecia areata, and also the first to establish melanocytes from the human hair follicles in long-term culture. He has identified a self-similarity of the POMC peptide system in the human hair follicle pigmentary unit, how pigmentation can be regulated by CRF and POMC peptides (incl. beta endorphin), and more recently by bone morphogenetic proteins. Together with Suman Singh he has revealed an unexpected role for filopodia in melanin transfer under the influence of myoxin-X and cdc42.
Des Tobin is a Fellow of Royal College of Pathologists, Society of Biology, and Institute of Trichologists (Vice-President). He serves(ed) on several editorial boards and is executive editor of International Journal of Trichology. He has published over 140 publications, including 3 books.
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Dorothy Bennett
St. Georges, University of London, United Kingdom
Title of talk: Melanocyte Senescence Pathways: The Impact of p16 Defects
Prof. Dot Bennett obtained her PhD in cancer cell biology with Renato Dulbecco at the ICRF laboratories in London. Her first postdoctoral research was on mammary gland stem cells at the Salk Institute in California, and then on relations between cell differentiation and the cell cycle, back at the ICRF, with James Smith, where she first studied pigment cells.
Since then she has worked at St George’s, University of London, where she now holds a personal research chair in Cell Biology. Her research group has a longstanding interest in melanocytes and the genetics of pigmentation and its disorders such as vitiligo and albinism. She co-authored a book with Drs Lamoreux, Larue and Delmas, on mouse pigmentary genetics. Her group have enjoyed collaborating with many others in the field, around the world. They now focus on the genetics of pigmentary disorders, especially melanoma, with a particular interest in cell senescence as an anti-cancer defence, and how cancer cells escape from this through common genetic changes. The group's Functional Genomics Cell Bank, now directed by Elena Sviderskaya, has developed many new lines of mutant melanocytes, melanoblasts and melanoma cells, and provides these to researchers around the world.
Prof. Bennett is Past President of the ESPCR and of the IFPCS, and currently President of the European Cell Senescence Association. She is also a member of the Vitiligo European Task Force and the Society for Melanoma Research.
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Elizabeth Patton
Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, United Kingdom
Title of talk: Chemical Biology in Zebrafish: Drug-Leads and New Targets in the Melanocyte Lineage and Melanoma
Liz Patton is a Reader and MRC Career Track Scientist at the MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research investigates the basis for melanocyte development, as well as melanoma biology, which is the most deadly form of skin cancer. In particular, her lab uses chemical genetics approaches in zebrafish to identify new and targetable pathways that govern melanocyte development from the neural crest. The lab is also investigating how such pathways are dysregulated in melanoma and could serve as targets for therapy. Dr Patton is an editorial board member on Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research, is a member of the Young Academy of Scotland at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has recently been elected to the European Society of Pigment Cell Research.
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Emi Nishimura
Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan
Title of talk: Coupling of the Stress Sensitivity of Melanocyte Stem Cells to their Dormancy during a Hair Cycle
Dr. Emi Nishimura obtained her MD in 1994 and did her dermatology residency in Kyoto University Hospital. She then obtained her PhD in Shin-Ichi Nishikawa's lab at Kyoto University, studying melanocyte development, where she subsequently identified melanocyte stem cells. Dr. Nishimura did her post-doc training in David Fisher's lab in the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and extended her melanocyte stem cell research there. She then started her own group as an Associate Professor at Hokkaido University, subsequently becoming Professor at Kanazawa University the following year. Her lab then moved to Tokyo Medical and Dental University in 2009. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Stem Cell Biology within the Medical Research Institute of Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
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Cheng-Che Lan
Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Taiwan ROC
Title of talk: UVB Phototherapy in Vitiligo Treatment: Immune Regulation versus Biostimulation
Dr. Cheng-Che Lan received his MD degree from National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, in 2000, and PhD degree from Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 2007. Currently, Dr. Lan is the Professor and Chairman of Dermatology Department at Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University. In addition, he also serves as the secretary of Asian Society for Pigment Cell Research and is the associate editor for Dermatologica Sinica, the official journal of Taiwanese Dermatological Association. Dr. Lan is the author or co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in academic journals including Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research, and Diabetes. Dr. Lan focuses his academic research on pigmentary disorders, wound healing, and phototherapies. He enjoys clinical practice as much as academic research.
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Evangeline Handog
Asian Hospital and Medical Center, Philippines
Title of talk: Skin Lightening Agents: The Evidence and my Experience
Dr. Evangeline Handog obtained her medical degree from the University of Santo Tomas, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. After her residency in the field of Dermatology at the Dermatology Research and Training Center under the Department of Health, she went to the Institute of Dermatology in Bangkok, Thailand as a Colombo scholar under Prof. Renoo Kontrajaras. She was also a Monbusho scholar to Japan as a Dermatology Researcher at Nagasaki University School of Medicine under the tutelage of Prof. Hikotaro Yoshida.
Dr. Handog has actively served numerous local and international societies in various capacities; as International Board Observer of the American Academy of Dermatology, International Representative to the board of the Women’s Dermatologic Society, as Scientific committee member and ISD Manager of the XI International Congress of Dermatology, as Secretary-General of the 5th Asian-Australasian Regional Conference of Dermatology, Vice-President of the Philippine Dermatological Society, Chair of the Pigmentary Disorders of the Philippines, President of the Philippine Society of the Cutaneous Medicine, Member of the Philippine Medical Association and the Philippine Academy of Dermatologic Surgery Foundation - among others. She has been in the editorial board of the International Journal of Dermatology Recently. She has been elected in Delhi as the first woman President of the International Society of Dermatology (2013-2017).
Dr. Handog has delivered more than seventy five international lectures, including plenaries, and about a hundred local lectures. She has authored 12 book chapters in various international books, and has published several journal articles. Her topics of interest include: cosmetic dermatology, pigmentary disorders, and acne.
She currently chairs the Department of Dermatology of Asian Hospital and Medical Center and is also a well-loved volunteer consultant at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Her outstanding contribution to the dermatology world is being able to help young dermatologists fulfill their dreams of having mentorship with world renowned mentors and scientists across the globe.
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Eyal Gottlieb
Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, United Kingdom
Title of talk: Metabolic Vulnerabilities of Melanoma
Professor Eyal Gottlieb is the Director of the Cancer Metabolism Research Unit at Cancer Research-UK, Beatson Institute (Glasgow, UK). He received his BSc in Agricultural Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1990 and MSc (1992) and PhD (1998) degrees in Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel) where he studied the role of the tumour suppressor, p53, in apoptosis. In 1998 Prof Gottlieb moved to the University of Chicago (Chicago, USA) as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow to study metabolic regulation of cell death and in 1999, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA) to continue his postdoctoral studies., There he became, in 2000, a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Special Fellow. In 2003, Prof Gottlieb was appointed a Research Group Leader at the Cancer Research-UK, Beatson Institute where he studied cancer metabolism. He became a Professor of Molecular Cell Biology at the University of Glasgow in 2009.
Prof Gottlieb and his team combine analytical chemistry and biochemical approaches to study metabolic transformation of cancer. His group generated and employed mouse models and cell lines to study the metabolic consequences and vulnerabilities due to the loss of the mitochondrial tumour suppressors, FH and SDH and due to changes in tumour microenvironment conditions and intracellular metabolic demands. Their major discoveries were: The identification of onco-metabolic signalling events mediated by TCA cycle metabolites, the discovery of metabolic adaptations and survival mechanisms of FH-deficient cancer cells and the tight control of glycolysis and serine biosynthesis in cancer.
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Fabian Filipp
University of California Merced, United States
Title of talk: Isozyme Shift in Cancer Metabolism
Fabian Filipp's research group at the University of California Merced is interested in the connection between key metabolic enzymes and their regulation of central metabolism as an opportunity for melanoma diagnosis and therapy.
His expertise in cancer, systems biology, drug discovery, and analysis of metabolic pathways together with his broad research experience in analytical NMR spectroscopy is a potent combination to develop the tools necessary to grasp the response of the human metabolic network upon transformation. The bioengineering and bioanalytical work on melanoma cells is carried out at the University of California, Merced. The Castle research facility for Systems Biology and Cancer Metabolism in Merced is a major research and training site of the University and key to providing high-resolution insights into tumor metabolism.
He runs a federal funded interdisciplinary research program on melanoma metabolism to identify biomarkers and metabolic master regulators. In addition, he investigates metabolic enzymes as potential drug targets to prevent the progression of cancer. OMICs studies using stable isotope enhanced flux measurements and next generation sequencing data provide high-solution insights into molecular mechanism of oncogenesis.
He is engaged in the Programs for Quantitative and Systems Biology, Bioengineering and the Health Science Research Institute at UC Merced, providing infrastructure for studying all the facets of such a truly interdisciplinary approach and having major impact on science, health, and education. UC Merced is a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education, and committed to providing advanced cancer training and higher-education to minority students. The concentration of local experts in cancer, metabolomics, chemical, computational, structural and systems biology is key to significantly advance our knowledge in melanoma metabolism. This group stimulates out-of-the-box thinking and collaborative approaches, necessary to translate basic discoveries like metabolic biomarkers effectively into application useful for diagnostics and therapy.
During his time as research fellow at EMBL, UC San Diego, and the NIH CCC at Sanford|Burnham Medical Research Institute, he has developed state of the art NMR and OMICs methods to investigate specific cancer metabolites. His strong ties established during the past five years with cancer, chemical and system biologists in the U.S. research community will make it possible to have a supportive network to move towards a tenured independent investigator position over time. In summary, he has a demonstrated record of successful and productive research projects in an area of high relevance for the field of cancer metabolism. His expertise and experience at designated National Cancer Centers have prepared him to be a project leader on melanoma metabolism and metabolic master regulators of melanoma progression.
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Fatimata Ly
Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal
Title of talk: Skin Bleaching in Sub Saharan African People: The Difficult Choice between Beauty and Health
Born in Diourbel, Senegal, on the 14th October 1967, Fatimata Ly is the Head of the Dermatology Department at the Institute of Social Hygiene in Dakar. Having studied medicine at several universities in Africa and Europe, she specialises in Dermatology, with a keen interest in infectious diseases. She also lectures regularly at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, where she also supports postgraduate students with their own theses. Widely renowned, a high-flyer and hard worker, she regularly attends and speaks at conferences both in Senegal and abroad where she pushes for the advance in medical services in Africa.
Fatimata Ly is one of the founders of AIIDA, an Association fighting against the use of skin-bleaching products. They have succeeding in making the issue of skin-bleaching become a public health issue in Senegal through various conference and other awareness-raising activities.
A full list of her publications can be provided upon request.
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Frances Noonan
George Washington University, United States
Title of talk: Interaction between UVA and Eumelanin but not Phaeomelanin Results in Melanoma
Frances Noonan received her PhD in Microbiology and BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Queensland and carried out post-doctoral studies in cancer research at NCI-Frederick Cancer Research Center, MD, USA, where she investigated UV radiation effects on immunity. She pursued this interest further at Flinders University of South Australia where she was BS Hanson Research Fellow and subsequently at The George Washington University. She is the author of multiple publications on the effects of UV radiation on the immune response, notably as a co-discoverer on the role of urocanic acid as photoreceptor for UV-induced immune suppression. Most lately her research direction has been the role of UV radiation in melanoma. Her current investigations are into the roles of UVB, UVA and melanin in melanoma which she has investigated using mouse models. She is the lead author on a recent publication identifying two UV pathways to melanoma. She received sustained research funding from agencies including the National Cancer Institute, NIH for more than 20 years. She was an active participant in graduate training at GWU, teaching and supervising research students. She is active in the photobiology community and was President of the American Society for Photobiology (2004) and has been recently re-elected to the ASP Council. She is Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine, The George Washington University.
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Goh Chee Leok
National Skin Centre, Singapore
Title of talk: Recent Advances on Laser Tattoo Removal
Prof Goh graduated from the medical school of the National University of Singapore in 1974. He obtained his post graduate degree in 1978 and awarded a post doctoral degree in Doctor of Medicine in 1994.
He is currently a Senior Consultant Dermatologist at the National Skin Centre and Clinical Professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Singapore, Adjunct Professor of the Duke-NUS Post Graduate Medical School and a Senior Consultant in the Director of Medical Services Office of the Ministry of Health.
He was the Medical Director of the National Skin Centre, Singapore between 1990 and 2004. Prof Goh was the chairman of Taskforce for Aesthetic Medicine Workgroup of the Ministry of Health in 2007. He is a Committee Member of the Singapore Medical Council Aesthetic Practice Oversight Committee and member of its subcommittee on Certificate of Competence Accreditation. He is also the Chairman of the Pharmacovigilance Advisory Committee of the Health Science Authority of the Ministry of Health and a member of the Transplant Ethics Committee of the Minstry of Health. His special interests are in Acne related disorders, Contact and Occupational Dermatitis, Dermatological and Laser Surgery and IT in medicine.
He is a member of the International Contact Dermatitis Research Group. He was past president of the Society of Laser Medicine and Surgery of Singapore and also past president of the Environmental and Occupational Dermatology Society of Singapore. He is a member of the Global Alliance to Improve Outcomes in Acne, member of the Asian Acne Board and Chairman of the South East Asian Acne Study Alliance.
He is a past member of editorial board of the Contact Dermatitis (Munksgaard Publication) and past international editorial board member of the Archives of Dermatology and Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. He has published more than 300 scientific papers in peer review journals and chapter contributor to numerous dermatology reference books and co-editor of several reference dermatology books and several educational books for the lay public.
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Graça Raposo
Institut Curie- CNRS, France
Title of talk: The Biogenesis of Melanosomes and Intercellular Communication in the Skin
Graça Raposo is a Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
(CNRS) in France. She is the head of the Structure and Membrane Compartments group and and the Deputy Director of the Department of Cell Biology (UMR144-CNRS) at Institut Curie in Paris. In 1989 she received her Ph.D. in Membrane Biology and Immunology at the University of Paris VII where she specialized in Electron Microscopy and membrane biology. From 1990 to 1995 she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Immunology Center in Marseille and then in the Department of Cell Biology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Her research area is related to intracellular trafficking in the endocytic and exocytic pathways of eukaryotic cells. Her major research interests focus on the biogenesis and functions of exosomes and lysosome related organelles with implications in neurodegenerative disorders, lysosomal diseases and cancer. Over the past recent years her group have started to address the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating the biogenesis of melanosomes, the lysosome related organelles of epidermal melanocytes. Through a fruitful combination of highly sophisticated imaging methods with molecular biology and biochemistry, her studies have started to unravel the mechanisms and the organelles involved in the maturation of melanosomes from their unpigmented precursors. These studies shed light on the mechanisms and pathways underlying melanosome biogenesis and open a new avenue to modulate pigmentation in health and disease. She was recently awarded with the CNRS Silver Medal and the Descartes Huygens Price from the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.
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Howard Chang
Stanford University, United States
Title of talk: Patterning the Skin Epigenome
Howard Y. Chang M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine and Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Chang earned a Ph.D. in Biology from MIT, M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed Dermatology residency and postdoctoral training at Stanford University. His research addresses how individual cells know where they are located in the human body, which is important in normal development and in cancer metastasis. Chang discovered a new class of genes, termed long noncoding RNAs, can control gene activity throughout the genome, illuminating a new layer of biological regulation. His has invented new methods for epigenomic profiling and define RNA structures genome-wide. The long term goal of his research is to decipher the regulatory information in the genome to benefit human health.
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Jun Guo
Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, People's Republic of China
Title of talk: Acral and Mucosal Melanoma in Asians
Jun Guo, MD. PhD. is a professor and the medical director of the Department of Renal Cancer and Melanoma (which he helped to establish) in Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute. He is a leading researcher in the areas of melanoma and renal cancer in China. He holds multiple positions, such as the president of Chinese Melanoma committee in Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO), the president of Chinese Renal Cancer committee in CSCO, member of Global Melanoma Task Force (GMTF). He attended to write "Chinese renal cancer treatment guidelines" and "NCCN guidelines for renal cancer Chinese version". He is responsible for "China Melanoma Treatment Guidelines". He has published several research papers in peer-reviewed journals ( J Clin Oncol, Clin Cancer Res, Eur J Cancer, Blood, Gene Ther, Int J Cancer, etc.).
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Greg Barsh
Stanford University, United States
Title of talk: Genetics of Stripes and Spots
Greg Barsh is an Investigator at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama, and Professor of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research program is focused on the genetic architecture of color variation in laboratory mice and in natural populations of mammals, including humans. He is the past president of the PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research, and an Editor in Chief of PLoS Genetics.
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Hee-Young Kang
Ajou University School of Medicine, Republic of Korea
Title of talk: Vascular Characteristics of Melasma and Therapeutic Implications
Hee Young Kang, M.D., Ph. D. is a professor of the department of dermatology at Ajou University School of Medicine in Suwon, Korea. She started her studies in medicine in 1988 at the Ajou University School of Medicine and received her M.D. and Ph.D. from the Ajou University Graduate School. She studied at the department of life science of POSTECH, Korea from 1995 to 1997. She trained in dermatology at the Ajou University Hospital (1997-2001). In 2001, she became board certified dermatologist and worked as an assistant professor in the department of dermatology, Ajou University School of Medicine from 2004 to 2008. She had a visiting scholar in department of dermatology at the University of Nice in France (2008-2009). She has published scientific and clinical papers in more than 90 highly ranked international journals. Besides clinical dermatology, her scientific focus is in the pigmentary disorders including melasma and vitiligo.
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Hideya Ando
Okayama University of Science, Japan
Title of talk: A Role of Multiple Melanosome-Containing Globules in Melanosome Transfer and a Possible Contribution of Fibroblasts to Dermal Melanin Deposition
Prof. Hideya Ando carried out his undergraduate studies in the Department of Agriculture at Nagoya University, Japan, and received his PhD in 1995 at Kobe University School of Medicine, Japan (directed by Prof. Masamitsu Ichihashi). He has been a company researcher (Sunstar Inc., DHC Corporation, Estee Lauder) from 1983 to 2011 and his research field was to develop skin lightening/whitening functional cosmetics. As a research fellow at National Institutes of Health, USA (2002-2003), he began to work on the mechanism of tyrosinase degradation. In recent five years, he also began to work on the mechanism of melanosome transfer from melanocytes to keratinocytes. In 2007, he was appointed as an Associate Professor of Doshisha University, Japan, and became a Professor of Okayama University of Science, Department of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology, Japan, in 2011.
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Hiroaki Yamamoto
Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, Japan
Title of talk: Functional Divergence of Mammalian Melanocytes
Hiroaki Yamamoto began studying Pigment Cell Biology at Tohoku University in Sendai Japan. His supervisor was the late Dr. Takuji Takeuchi who significantly contributed to the development of our Society as Editor-in-Chief of Pigment Cell Research. Dr. Yamamoto elucidated the fine localization of mouse tyrosinase antigens in melanocytes using electron microscopic-immunohistochemistry. After gaining his PhD at Tohoku University, he expanded his research experience on chicken melanocyte systems as a Research Associate/Post Doc at Dr. John Brumbaugh's Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE. After returning to Tohoku University, Dr. Yamamoto was involved in a project to analyze the mouse tyrosinase gene structure. Phylogenetic analyses of pigmentation genes led him to study ascidian pigment cell lineages. When he organized his own research group in Sendai, he elucidated the structure of the mibw (black-eyed white) recessive allele at the mi locus, now called "MitfI", because the structures of other alleles at this locus had just been reported. He was surprised to find that the mibw allele had already become extinct in laboratories outside Sendai. Since then, his group has continued to study this mutation and has still been focusing on the functions of melanin pigment cells at the Nagahama Institute of Bio-science and Technology, to which he moved several years ago. At this meeting, Dr. Yamamoto will discuss the functional contribution of extracutaneous melanocytes to their habitats.
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Ian Jackson
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Title of talk: How Do Melanocytes Find Their Way?
Professor Ian Jackson is Head of Medical and Developmental Genetics at the MRC Human Genetics Unit and a Group Leader at the Roslin Institute, both in the University of Edinburgh. He has studied melanocyte biology, in particular the molecular genetics of pigmentation, for over 30 years. He discovered the Dct gene in the mid-1980s and his Dct:lacZ transgenic mouse reporter line has been widely used throughout the world to follow the melanoblast lineage during development. More recently his lab has used fluorescent lineage markers to follow the migration and proliferation of melanoblasts.
In addition to studying melanocytes, Ian has a wide interest in animal models of human disease. He is a past President of the International Mammalian Genome Society, a former Vice-President of the Genetics Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is currently President of the European Society for Pigment Cell Research.
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Iltefat Hamzavi
Henry Ford Hospital, United States
Title of talk: Update On Afamelanotide and NBUVB for Vitiligo
Dr. Iltefat Hamzavi, M.D., is a board certified Dermatologist. He specializes in photodermatology and laser technology and has performed thousands of laser procedures working with all ethnic skin types. His clinical interests lie in caring for patients with vitiligo and hidradenitis suppurativa
Dr. Hamzavi earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Hamzavi received his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Hamzavi completed his residency in Dermatology at Wayne State University and then spent time in Europe training at some of the world’s leading skin care centers. In 2001, Dr. Hamzavi completed an advanced one-year laser and photo-medicine fellowship at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Dr. Hamzavi is an active clinic researcher and investigator with more than 60 peer reviewed papers along with several book chapters.
Dr.Hamzavi splits his time between Hamzavi Dermatology and its affiliate Dermatology Specialists group. He also serves as senior staff physician at Henry Ford Health System's Department of Dermatology, and teaches medical students at Wayne State University.
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John E. Harris
University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States
Title of talk: Losing Color - Keratinocytes Drive Autoimmunity in Vitiligo through CXCL10
Dr. Harris is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Dermatology Division, Department of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) in Worcester, MA. Dr. Harris directs the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at UMMS, 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 UMMS, 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 UMMS, and teaches medical students and residents in his vitiligo clinic.
He has authored multiple research publications and textbook chapters on vitiligo and other topics, and serves on a number of advisory boards and committees, including the Dermatology Foundation, Skin of Color Society, Vitiligo Working Group, Vitiligo Research Foundation, National Alopecia Areata Foundation, American Academy of Dermatology and the New England Dermatology Society, among others. He is an advisor and collaborator with multiple pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, Combe Inc, Genzyme/Sanofi, and Pfizer.
Dr. Harris is an ad hoc reviewer on grant applications for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dermatology Foundation, and National Alopecia Areata Foundation, as well as multiple research journals, including Science Translational Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research, Experimental Dermatology, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, JAMA Dermatology, and others. He receives generous grant support from the NIH, Dermatology Foundation, Kawaja Vitiligo Initiative, and the Vitiligo Research Foundation. He has lectured on vitiligo and other topics to local, regional, national, and international audiences.
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Jean Krutmann
IUF - Leibniz-Research Institute for Environmental Medicine at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany
Title of talk: Environmentally-induced Skin Aging: Insights into new molecular mechanisms
Currently, Jean Krutmann is Professor of Dermatology and Environmental Medicine and Director of the IUF - Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. Furthermore, he is a coordinator of the Leibniz Research Alliance "Healthy aging". His research is in the field of dermatotoxicology and immunodermatology with special emphasis on environmentally-induced skin diseases and skin aging. He is author or co-author of more than 200 papers. He is the recipient of the International Arnold-Rikli-Award, the Albert Fleckenstein Award, the Paul Gerson Unna Award, the Oscar Gans Award, the C.E.R.I.E.S.Research Support Award and the Dermopharmacy Innovation Award. He is visiting and adjunct professor of dermatology at the Nagoya City University, Japan, Case Western Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio and University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA. He is a member of the National Academy of Science of Germany.
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José Carlos García-Borrón
University of Murcia, Spain
Title of talk: Pathway-specific Regulation of Human Melanocortin-1 Receptor Signaling
José Carlos García-Borrón obtained his PhD in 1984, from the University of Granada, Spain, working on the characterization of kinetic and physico-chemical properties of mammalian tyrosinases. He spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia and one more year at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA, where he studied structure-function relationships of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Back in Spain, he joined the Staff of the University of Murcia, where he is now Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the School of Medicine. At the University of Murcia, he resumed his studies on the regulation of mammalian pigmentation. His research has been focused on core aspects of the biochemistry and molecular biology of the melanogenic pathway. His group has been actively involved in the characterization of melanogenic proteins, and their regulation by extracellular signaling molecules, with emphasis on the role of the Melanocortin 1 Receptor.
José C García-Borrón has served as member of the ESPCR Council for several consecutive terms, and as Secretary and President of the ESPCR (from 2000 to 2003, and from 2003 to 2006, respectively). He has been member of the Council of the IFPCS (2001-2008) and Secretary-Treasurer from 2005 to 2008. He is member of the Editorial Boards of "Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research" and "Experimental Dermatology". In May 2008, he was awarded the Henry Stanley Raper Medal, for outstanding contributions to the Biochemistry of Pigmentation.
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Kazumasa Wakamatsu
Fujita Health University School of Health Sciences, Japan
Title of talk: Elaboration of Approach to Structure of Neuromelanin Present in Various Brain Regions as Studied by Chemical Degradative Methods
Kazumasa Wakamatsu is Professor at Department of Chemistry, Fujita Health University School of Health Sciences since 2002. He received his PhD from Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science at Nagoya University, Japan and moved in 1987 to Fujita Health University where he has been working closely with Professor Emeritus, Shosuke Ito. They have jointly published more than 180 original and review papers. He spent a year in 1995 at Professor Tony Thody's laboratory in Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine at University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK as a visiting fellow. His present interest in study is the melanin pigmentation and aging process in melanin. He has developed the micro-analytical chemical degradative methods for melanin determination with Sho Ito, and applied them to various biological samples. Currently, He is a member of the Board of Directors of Japanese Society of Pigment Cell Research (JSPCR), and the Secretary-General of JSPCR.
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Kiyoshi Sato
Shiseido Co., Ltd., Japan
Title of talk: The Mechanisms of Skin Lightening Ingredients for Cosmetics
Kiyoshi Sato received his Master's from the University of Tokyo in 1993 and entered Shiseido in the same year. After joining the company, he conducted research on how Ultraviolet A exposure causes pigmentation and how to label the UVA protection index on sunscreen products.
In 1995, began focusing on the development of skin lightening agents and spent two year in an advanced research project on melanin formation at New York University. After returning to Japan in 1997, he continued to research and develop potential active ingredients while conducting basic research on skin lightening. His expertise in skin lightening extends over 20 years with Shiseido and he has lead the development of a lot of skin lightening agents used in most of Shiseido exclusive brightening skincare lines.
In 2011, he became leader of developing functional ingredients for cosmetics. Currently, he is leader of the group responsible for basic cutaneous biology research, including skin lightening.
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Kyoung-Chan Park
Seoul National University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea
Title of talk: New Aspects of Melasma and Treatment
Research in Dr. Park's laboratory focuses on pigmentary disorders (melasma, vitiligo and so on), skin stem cells, and cosmetic sciences. His laboratory is based in the Bundang Seoul National University Hospital and employs a range of techniques including cell biology, molecular biology and tissue engineering technology. Dr Park is actively developing a new concept of cosmetics and also new materials for topical treatment.
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Laurent Marrot
L'OREAL Research & Innovation, France
Title of talk: Pigmentation, Oxidative Stress and Specific Epidermal Detoxification
Head of a Research Unit involved in investigations aiming at studying environmental stress on epidermis and at developing new skin protection strategies. A project particularly focused on "stress and pigmentation" started about 15 years ago. Studying solar UV impact, we were among those who first showed that endogenous melanogenesis could enhance UVA-induced oxidative/genotoxic stress inside human cultured melanocytes (Photochem Photobiol, 1999 and 2002). Studies dealing with drug-induced phototoxicity in pigment cells were also performed in the context of a European Research Program (e.g.: impact of fluoroquinolones + UVA, data published in J Invest Dermatol, 2003). Our lab was the first to publish results about modulation of Nrf2 pathway by UV or chemicals in normal human melanocytes and keratinocytes (Pigment Cell Melanoma Res, 2008). More recently, we were involved in characterizing Nrf2 status in epidermis of vitiligo vulgaris patients (J Invest Dermatol, 2010). Finally, we have just contributed to a review about oxidative stress in melanocytes: origins, mechanisms and impact in various pathologies such as vitiligo or melanoma (J Invest Dermatol, 2014).
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Leihong Flora Xiang
Huashan Hospital, People's Republic of China
Title of talk: Challenges in Dermal Pigmentation
Dr. Flora XIANG is currently Clinical Professor and Deputy Chair, Department of Dermatology, Huashan Hospital, Deputy Chair of Institute of Dermatolgy, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University. She got her MD, PhD in Shanghai Medical University in 1992 and in 1999 respectively. During 2001-2002, She had been an honorary research associate in division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong. In 2005, She had been a clinical observer in Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School in Boston as Huashan hospital and MGH are the sister hospital.
She has memberships in professional societies, as committee member in Dermatology Society, China Medical Association; Secretary in general and board committee member in China Dermatology Association (CDA), Deputy Chair in Minimally invasive plastic surgery and dermatology association (MIPSD), Vice Director of Acne research group in Dermatology Society, Chinese Intergrated Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine Association. She is also an international member of EADV, Member of Asian Association of Dermatology and Venerology (AADV), Member of Asian Acne Board (AAB) and member of Asian Society of Pigment Cell Research (ASPCR).
Her focus of interest and research is pigmentary skin disorders and cosmetic dermatology. She has lectured in Mayo Clinic, University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, University Hospitals of Cleveland, New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell University, HammerSmith Hospital, London, UK on those topics. Her research project “the experimental and clinical study of pure cultured melanocytes autologous and allograft in the treatment of vitiligo” achieved Shanghai Municiple Science and Technology Achievement Awards (No. 004710, 2000) and National Department of Health Science and Technology Achievement (No. 360- 01-20710808-02, 2001). Dr. Xiang has published over 65 articles and 11 book chapters. She is the principal investigator of five research projects, supported by National Science Fund Committee (NSFC) and National Department of Education, etc.
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Lionel Larue
Institut Curie- CNRS, France
Title of talk: β-Catenin Signalling Pathway in Melanoblasts and Melanoma
Before developing his own laboratory, Lionel Larue performed his PhD at Institut Gustave-Roussy in Villejuif, in the department of Molecular Pharmacology directed by Paoletti-Le Pecq. He performed his post-doctoral training with Beatrice Mintz at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, on determination, differentiation, and transformation of melanocytes. He moved back to Europe, Freiburg (Germany), where he worked with Rolf Kemler at the Max-Planck Institut für Immunbiologie, where he concentrated on sophisticated mouse molecular genetics involving embryonic stem cells and conditional mutations. From the fourth embryonic layer, neural crest and its derivatives including melanocytes. Dr. Larue focused his attention on pre-implantation and gastrulation, improving our knowledge on the cadherin-catenin complex genes.
Currently, Lionel Larue is research director (INSERM) at Institut Curie, Orsay, in an INSERM-CNRS department acting as deputy director. For about 15 years, his laboratory focuses on molecular genetics involving the melanocyte lineage. In order to better normal and pathological development of melanocytes, the laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms occurring during the establishment of the melanocyte lineage, homeostasis and transformation. Their molecular keystone is β-catenin. In particular, they study the regulation of β-catenin through the WNT, PI3K/PTEN and MAPK signaling pathways. They evaluate the importance of β-catenin interactants, such as cadherins, ICAT or LEF/TCF proteins and they assess the role of β-catenin in the regulation of transcription of targets including, MITF-M, BRN2, CSK or NEDD9. In order to achieve their goals, the laboratory constantly improves techniques, technologies and scientific concepts at the molecular, cellular and physiological levels.
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Lluis Montoliu
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia, Spain
Title of talk: Increasing the Complexity: New Genes and New Types of Albinism
Dr. Lluis Montoliu (Barcelona, Spain, 1963) is a Research Scientist of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and established his laboratory at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB), in Madrid (Spain) since 1997, after two postdoctoral periods in Heidelberg and Barcelona. He graduated in Biological Sciences (1986) and obtained his PhD in Molecular Genetics (1990) at the University of Barcelona. Since 1991 he has been working in several scientific projects within the field of animal transgenesis. Including his PhD he has been always working on the genetic modification of organisms (GMOs). At the CNB he leads a research team interested to understand the mechanisms controlling gene expression in mammalian genomes. He uses genetically modified animals (transgenic mice and zebrafish) and pigment-related genes, such as tyrosinase, as experimental models. He also investigates the function of specific genes in the development of the retina in mammals, through the study of visual abnormalities associated to albinism. His group has generated several transgenic and knockout mice, as animal models to study human congenital pigment disorders such albinism. Since 2007 he is also appointed to the Spanish Research Initiative on Rare Diseases (CIBERER-ISCIII) and he is involved in collaborative efforts towards the universal genetic diagnosis of all known forms of albinism. He has been serving at the European Society for Pigment Cell Research (ESPCR) board since 2007 as council member and webmaster, and since 2010 as Treasurer. Similarly, he has been serving as webmaster for the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies (IFPCS) since 2008.
Lluis Montoliu's laboratory web page: http://www.cnb.csic.es/~montoliu
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Lukas Sommer
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Title of talk: Common Mechanisms Regulating Neural Crest Development and Melanoma Formation
Prof. Lukas Sommer carried out his undergraduate studies in Biology at the Biocenter in Basel, Switzerland and received his PhD in 1992 at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) in Epalinges s/Lausanne. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Anderson at the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) in Pasadena, California, USA, he began to work on neural crest development and neural stem cell biology. In 1997 he returned to Switzerland to join the Institute of Cell Biology at the ETH Zurich, where he first worked as a group leader and then, in 2001, as an Assistant Professor for Cell and Developmental Biology. Since 2007, Lukas Sommer is Full Professor and head of the Division of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich.
Genetic approaches in mouse model systems combined with cell biological assays have allowed Prof. Lukas Sommer to identify mechanisms regulating stem cell fates in the developing CNS and in neural crest-derived tissues. His research also led to the identification and characterization of adult neural crest-derived stem cells and the study of disease mechanisms involving aberrant neural crest development and tumor formation.
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Marisol Soengas
Spanish Cancer Research Centre, Spain
Title of talk: Non-invasive Imaging of Neo-lymphangiogenesis for the Identification of Metastatic Niches and Anticancer Agents in Melanoma
María S. Soengas is an expert in basic and translational research in melanoma. She is the director of the Molecular Pathology Programme, and the Dean for Academic Affairs at the Spanish Cancer Research Centre, (CNIO) in Madrid. The long-term goal of her laboratory is to translate basic research in melanoma into the clinic by identifying novel tumour markers and drug targets. Specifically, her group focuses on stress response programs (involving apoptosis, autophagy, senescence and endosome mobilization) and how they are deregulated during melanoma progression. Clinically-annotated human biopsies are the main core of the experimental systems used by the Soengas Team. In addition, her laboratory dedicates particular attention to genetically modified mice as models for gene discovery in vivo. In particular, they have generated immunocompetent and immunodeficient animal models for non-invasive imaging of pre-metastatic niches in melanoma. These first-in-class systems also represent cost-effective platforms for drug screening and pharmacokinetic analyses, which are being performed in concert with various biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Soengas has received fellowships and awards from the Human Frontiers in Science Program, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America, the American Dermatology Foundation, the Elsa V. Pardee Foundation, the V Foundation for Cancer Research and the Melanoma Research Alliance. She also received the Dana Ashby Young Investigator Award of the Society for Melanoma Research.
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Markus Böhm
University of Münster, Germany
Title of talk: Prohormone Convertases and Melanoma – Emerging Players in Basic and Translational Research
Markus Böhm received his medical training at the University of Mainz, Germany. After an internship at the Dept. of Dermatology, Free University of Berlin (1991-1993), he moved to the USA and spent his postdoctoral fellowhip in the laboratory of Dr. Ruth Halaban, Yale University School of Medicine (1993-1995). His research centered around signal transduction pathways and growth factors in melanoma. However, he also came in close contact to Aaron Lerner, a pioneer in melanocortin peptide research and previous chair of the dermatology unit at Yale. Markus Böhm returned to Germany in 1995 and completed his medical residency at the Dept. of Dermatology, University of Münster (1995-2000). There, he also established his own research group. He was subsequently nominated as Assistant Professor (2002) and Associate Professor (2007). Markus Böhm has published more than 100 original articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, more than 20 review articles and more than 20 book chapters. He has published in prestigious journals including the J. Allergy Clin. Immunol., Arthritis & Rheum., Endocr. Rev., Nature Biol., Lancet, Oncogene, FASEB J., Am. J. Pathol., J. Biol. Chem., Endocrinology, J. Invest. Dermatol. and Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research. The research group of Markus Böhm "Neuroendocrinology of the Skin and Interdisciplinary Endocrinology" focusses on melanocortin peptides and receptors, acetylcholine receptors and ligands, endogenous opioids, and prohormone convertases.
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Mauro Picardo
San Gallicano Dermatological Institute, Italy
Title of talk: Vitiligo: An Update on Our Viewpoint
Mauro Picardo, is Director of the Cutaneous Physiopathology and Metabolomic Center at the San Gallicano Dermatological Institute in Rome. He received his degree at the Rome University "La Sapienza". He served as Scientific Director of the San Gallicano Institute from 2000-2006. He serves(ed) on several Boards of National and International Scientific Societies and Editorial Boards of indexed scientific journals and member of the National Health Council. He co-coordinates the European Vitiligo Task Force with A. Taieb. He is currently the President of the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies and President Elect of the European Society of Dermatological Research.
Author of more than 250 publications in peer reviewed journals and of more than 30 chapters in multi authors books. In collaboration with A Taieb is co-editor of a text "Vitiligo" (Springer ed, 2010). Referee ad hoc for various scientific journals.
His main topics of interest are skin biochemistry, free radicals mediated damage of the skin, mechanism of control of skin pigmentation, depigmenting agents, vitiligo. He coordinates lipidomic studies on acne and related disorders (seborrheic dermatitis, rosacea) in sebum and blood samples. His group has defined several important collaborations with national and international research groups.
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Nanja van Geel
Ghent University, Belgium
Title of talk: Non-cultured Cellular Grafting in Vitiligo: Pearls and Pitfalls
Nanja van Geel is a dermatologist at the Ghent University Hospital in Belgium. Her area of interest is Vitiligo and other pigmentary disorders. For her PhD she performed the first double blind randomized controlled trial to evaluate non cultured epidermal cellular grafting for vitiligo. Furthermore, a long term follow up study of this specific surgical technique followed in 2010.
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Nicholas Hayward
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Australia
Title of talk: The Genetic Architecture of Melanoma Predisposition
Prof. Hayward is Senior Principal Research Fellow and Head, Oncogenomics Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia.
He has studied the molecular genetics of melanoma for 30 years and is a foundation member of the International Melanoma Genetics Consortium (GenoMEL) and the Society for Melanoma Research. His work focuses on identifying high and low penetrance melanoma predisposition genes through linkage and genome-wide association studies, positional cloning and candidate gene analysis, as well as whole-genome and exome sequencing. Additionally, a large part of his research program involves identification and characterization of somatic mutations, structural aberrations, or gene expression differences associated with melanoma development and progression.
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Nikiforos Kollias
University of British Columbia, Canada
Title of talk: Human Pigmentation - The Colors of Skin
Dr. Kollias received his Ph.D. in 1971 in Low temperature Solid State Physics, from the University of Wyoming. He remained at the University of Wyoming until 1975 as a Lecturer-Laboratory scientist and investigated cooperative states of biological macromolecules studied with laser light scattering. In 1975 he was appointed Lecturer in Physics in the University of Kuwait where he developed a human Photobiology laboratory in the Department of Dermatology of Al-Sabah hospital with focus on the quantitative assessment and spectroscopic characterization of photobiological reactions of normal and of abnormal (vitiligo, psoriatic) human skin. He developed optical methods of characterizing and quantifying epidermal melanin pigmentation in human skin and evaluated its photoprotective potential especially for skin types V & VI and developed effective protocols for PUVA and UVB treatment of psoriasis and vitiligo. The solar UVB insolation was mathematically modeled at the latitude of Kuwait allowing thus prediction of the environmental risk.
In 1989 he joined the staff at Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School working on (a) ultraviolet radiation effects on skin and photoprotection, (b) the spectroscopy of human skin and animal models, (c) photodynamic therapy, dosimetry, efficacy, (d) support of the Dermatology Clinical Investigations Unit, (e) development of optical methods for the assessment of trauma in the office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Massachusetts both in-vivo and ex-vivo.
In 1999 Dr. Kollias jointed Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products Co to lead a group to develop methods and systems for clinical imaging both multimodal and spectral and to develop further methods to study the physiology of skin in vivo from infants to the elderly. Here he had the opportunity to study aging and photoaging, acne, and other skin conditions and to develop microscopic methods of assessment that connect with macroscopic (clinical) observations in vivo. Dr. Kollias retired from J&J in 2011. In 2013 Dr. Kollias was appointed Adjunct Professor of Dermatology at the University of British Columbia to participate in the research program in photobiology and phototherapy and the program on non-invasive diagnostics.
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Nikolas Haass
University of Queensland, Australia
Title of talk: Defining the Mode of Melanoma Heterogeneity by Real-time Cell Cycle Imaging
Nikolas Haass is an Associate Professor at The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute/Translational Research Institute, Honorary Associate Professor at The University of Sydney and Adjunct Associate Faculty member at the Centenary Institute. After obtaining his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center/University of Heidelberg, he trained as a dermatologist (focus: cutaneous oncology) at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. He then spent five years at the Wistar Institute/University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, as a post-doctoral fellow funded by the German Research Foundation. As a Cameron Melanoma Research Fellow from October 2007 to February 2013, he headed the group, 'Experimental Melanoma Therapy' at the Centenary Institute. In March 2013 he commenced his current position at UQDI.
Nikolas Haass has been involved in the very first study of the BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib, which is now one of the most promising drugs for melanoma therapy. However, despite its unprecedented response rates, cancer cells become drug-resistant over time. A number of new mutations have been linked to drug resistance but – in addition – he believes that tumour heterogeneity may be partly responsible for this dilemma. Using cutting-edge technology, such as real-time imaging of melanoma cells in 3D culture and in vivo, he and his team investigate the biology of tumour heterogeneity and the role of differential subpopulations of melanoma cells in melanomagenesis with the goal to develop novel therapeutic approaches by simultaneously targeting these differential subpopulations.
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Paul Meredith
University of Queensland, Australia
Title of talk: The Optical and Electrical Properties of Melanins: Archetypal Bioelectronic Materials?
Professor Paul Meredith is Professor of Materials Physics and Australian Research Council Discovery Outstanding Research Award Fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia. He co-directs the Centre for Organic Photonics and Electronics with research interests in bioelectronics, organic optoelectronics and solar energy. He has published > 150 papers in international journals and is listed as inventor on 28 patents. Professor Meredith was trained in physics, optoelectronics and biophysics in the United Kingdom at the University of Wales, Heriot-Watt University and Cambridge University, and also spent six years as a senior scientist at Proctor and Gamble. He is the co-founder of several start-up companies arising from his research including XeroCoat and Brisbane Materials Technology. Professor Meredith is best known for his group’s pioneering work on the structure-property relationships in melanins and latterly contributions to next generation organic optoelectronics. He is the recipient of several awards and honours including the Premier of Queensland’s Sustainability Award 2013.
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Nina Jablonski
The Pennsylvania State University, United States
Title of talk: Natural Selection and the Evolution of Skin Color Phenotypes
Nina G. Jablonski is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at The Pennsylvania State University. For the last 25 years, she has pursued questions in human evolution not directly answered by the fossil record, foremost among these being the evolution of human skin and skin pigmentation. From a primary interest in the evolution of skin pigmentation phenotypes, Jablonski has pursued issues surrounding the health and social implications of skin pigmentation. In addition to her scholarly articles on skin, Jablonski has written two popular books, Skin: A Natural History (2006) and Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color (2012), both published by University of California Press. Jablonski received her A.B. in Biology at Bryn Mawr College in 1975 and her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Washington in 1981. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences of the National Research Council. She is the recipient of an Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship (2005), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2012), and an honorary doctorate from University of Stellenbosch in South Africa (2010) for her contribution to the worldwide fight against racism. Jablonski now splits her time between basic research and educational projects. She is the lead investigator on a pilot project examining the factors that affect vitamin D status in healthy youth in the Western Cape of South Africa. She is the convener of a five-year research and education initiative, "The Effects of Race," based at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa, and – in conjunction with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is leading work on a new "genetics and genealogy" curriculum for middle- and high school students and university undergraduates in the U.S.
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Pearl Grimes
Vitiligo & Pigmentation Institute of Southern California, United States
Title of talk: Skin Pigmentation in Health & Disease: Novel and Seasoned Players
Dr. Grimes is the Founder and Director of the Vitiligo & Pigmentation Institute of Southern California, and a leading international authority on vitiligo and pigmentary disorders. She is also a Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in 1974 and completed her Dermatology residency at the Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. in 1979. She is nationally and internationally recognized for her work on pigmentary disorders. As a clinician, researcher, and sought-after speaker, Dr. Grimes lectures globally on disorders of pigmentation, as well as cosmetic procedures, including fillers, chemical peeling and microdermabrasion. She is also actively involved in clinical trials research. The Institute’s Clinical Trials Division works with leading pharmaceutical and consumer goods companies including Procter & Gamble, Allergan, Gladerma, Obagi, Johnson & Johnson and Suneva to name a few.
Dr. Grimes has authored well over 100 publications and abstracts and is a member of National and International Professional Societies including The American Academy of Dermatology, the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery, the American Dermatological Association, Society of Investigative Dermatology, Dermatology Foundation, International Pigment Cell Society, and the Women's Dermatologic Society. She has been listed in LA Magazine’s Super Doctors list for the last seven years and on the "Best Doctors of America" list for over a decade. She has been recognized by her peers with the prestigious Dermatology Foundation "Practitioner of the Year" Award for 2011, and the Women's Dermatological Society's "Mentor of the Year" award. She is a past Assistant Editor and Editorial Board Member of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Dermatology, and Skin and Allergy News.
Dr. Grimes is known for many things, but is most passionate about providing her patients with exceptional care. Known for her straightforward communication style, she feels that complete disclosure and honesty with her patients is essential to the success of their treatment protocol.
Following her passion and commitment for giving back to the community, in 2005 Dr. Grimes founded CARRY, The Coalition for At-Risk Youth. This non-profit organization is focused on foster and at-risk youth, offering pro bono medical resources, social skills workshops, scholarships and it co-sponsors a week-long summer camp. CARRY has raised over 1.5 million dollars for its programs.
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Penpun Wattanakrai
Mahidol University, Thailand
Title of talk: Laser Treatment of Melasma in Asians
Penpun Wattanakrai, MD is a board certified dermatologist. She is currently an Associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. She is the program director of the Ramathibodi laser training course is also the head of the Contact and Occupational Dermatology section, Division of Dermatology. She has participated and lectured in many local and international meetings and has received many rewards for her accomplishments. Her interests and scientific research are in the fields of laser, cosmetic dermatology, skin care, contact and occupational dermatology.
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Peter Hersey
The University of Sydney, Australia
Title of talk: Targeting Resistance Pathways in Melanoma with Epigenetic Regulators
Professor Hersey is a graduate in medicine from the University of Adelaide and in science from the University of Oxford where he completed a D.Phil in tumor immunology. He has worked closely with the Sydney and Newcastle Melanoma Units on Immunological aspects of melanoma and has been the principal investigator for a randomized trial of adjuvant immunotherapy in Stage 11b,111 melanoma and several trials of dendritic cell vaccines in patients with stage IV melanoma. He is Professor of Melanoma Biology at the University of Sydney and Consultant Immunologist to the Melanoma Institute Australia. He is a Member of the International working group on Melanoma and the Global melanoma task force. He has participated in all the major clinical trials of antibodies against against checkpoint inhibitors such as Ipilimumab and Nivolumab. He has contributed extensively to studies on sensitivity of melanoma cells to apoptosis induced by the immune system and chemotherapy as well as treatments which sensitize melanoma to therapy. He holds the view that overcoming resistance to cell death pathways in melanoma holds the key to advances in treatment of melanoma. He is joint holder of a National Health and Medical Research Council Program grant for studies on melanoma. He is on the editorial board of a number of international journals and has contributed extensively to melanoma research. Dr Hersey has contributed over 300 papers on original peer reviewed research related to melanoma.
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Prasad Kumarasinghe
Royal Perth Hospital and Western Dermatology, Australia
Clinical Associate Prof Prasad Kumarasinghe is currently a Consultant Dermatologist at Royal Perth Hospital in Western Australia.
Dr Kumarasinghe graduated MBBS (University of Colombo) in 1983. He completed his MD in 1989 and completed dermatology training in Sri Lanka and Australia. He worked as a consultant dermatologist in several university/teaching hospitals in Sri Lanka and Singapore before migrating to Australia in 2007. At the National Skin Centre in Singapore he was a Senior Consultant Dermatologist. He was the Head of The Pigmentary Disorders Clinic at the National Skin Centre in Singapore.
He was appointed as a Clinical Associate Professor in the school of Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Western Australia in 2011. He is a consultant dermatologist at the Department of Dermatology at Royal Perth Hospital and also works in the private sector as a consultant dermatologist. He was a regular clinical teacher and a supervisor of research projects as well as a Clinical Supervisor/Examiner in Dermatology in Sri Lanka and Singapore. Now he is a clinical supervisor of dermatology registrars in Australia.
Dr Kumarasinghe has research interests in leprosy, myiasis, vitiligo, progressive macular hypomelanosis, ashy dermatosis and melanoma.
He was the Founder President of the Asian Society for Pigment Cell Research. He was also the Founder President of Wound Care Foundation of Sri Lanka and is also the Founder President (current) of the patient support group ' Vitiligo Association of Australia.
He has authored or co-authored over 80 scientific papers and has written chapters in several dermatology books. He has delivered lectures in many countries in the East and West. He has wide editorial experience and has served as the Editor of Sri Lanka Journal of Dermatology and is a regular reviewer for many international dermatology journals.
He is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Dermatologists, The Ceylon College of Physicians, Academy of Medicine Singapore and Sri Lanka College of Dermatologists. He was the President of Sri Lanka Association of Dermatologists in 2004. He is currently a Director of International Society of Dermatology and a Council Member of the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies.
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Qing-Sheng Mi
Henry Ford Health System, United States
Title of talk: Increased Circulating Th17 Cells and Decreased Circulating iNKT Cells in Human Non-segmental Vitiligo
Qing-Sheng Mi, M.D., Ph.D., is a senior scientist, Director of Henry Ford Immunology Program, Director of Dermatology Research, Dept of Dermatology, Dept of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Health System (HFHS). Dr. Mi received his M.D. from Taishan Medical College in 1985 and his Ph.D. in Immunodermatology from China Medical University in 1992. He was an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor, Dept of Dermatology, Taishan Medical College (1991-1996); a visiting Associate Scientist, Laboratory of Immunology, National Aging Institute/NIH supported by NIH Fogarty International Scholarship (1996-2000); Senior Research Associate, Autoimmunity Group, Robert Research Institute in Canada (2000-2003); Assistant Professor and Associate professor in Dept of Pathology and Dept of Dermatology, Medical College of Georgia (2003-2008). He joined in Henry Ford Health System since 2008. Dr. Mi is an author on over 100 publications, including Nat Med and PNAS. His current research projects include epigenetic (miRNAs/HDACs) immune regulation (especially in NKT cells and epidermal langerhans cells) and miRNA biomarkers for human diseases, including autoimmune diseases (T1D, Vitiligo, Psoriasis) and melanoma, which are funded by NIH, Melanoma Research Alliance, JDRF, and Vitiligo Research Foundation.
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Rashmi Sarkar
Maulana Azad Medical College & LNJP Hospital, India
Title of talk: Impact of Pigmentary Disorders in Indian Patients
Dr Rashmi Sarkar, MD, MNAMS is Professor of Dermatology at Maulana Azad Medical College and Associated Lok Nayak Hospital,New Delhi,India. She has done her MD in Dermatology from P.G.I., Chandigarh. Her special interests are in Pigmentary Disorders and Pediatric Dermatology. She has done Visiting Fellowship in Pediatric Dermatology in Pediatric Dermatology Division,Dermatology Dept., UCSF, San Fransisco, USA. She was Founder Editor of Asian Pigment Bulletin(APB), is Associate Editor of Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery(JCAS); on the Editorial Board of Indian Journal of Dermatology,Venereology and Leprology(IJDVL), Indian Journal of Pediatric Dermatology(IJPD), ISRN Dermatology, and Editorial Advisory Board of Indian Journal of Dermatology(IJD) besides being a reviewer for 11 Journals. She has 95 publications in peer reviewed international and national journals and 30 chapters in textbooks. She has edited 2 textbooks in dermatology. She is National Honorary Secretary of Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists(2014-2015)., Chief Founder and Honorary Secretary of Pigmentary Disorders Society(PDS); Founding President of Joint Women's Dermatologic Society-Indian Women's Dermatologists Society; International Representative, Board of Directors, Women's Dermatologic Society(WDS), Board of Directors in Skin of Color Society(SOCS), Member of International Mentorship Committee of International Society of Dermatology(ISD); Chair of Women's Committee of IPCC and International Affairs Committee of WDS; Council Member of Asian Society of Pigment Cell Research. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards and honours including Maria Duran Fellowship from International Society of Dermatology, Member Making a Difference Award from American Academy of Dermatology and Career and Community Development Award from Women's Dermatologic Society and other International Travel Awards from ISD, WCD and AAD. Dr Rashmi has been an invited speaker in international and national conferences like Annual AAD, World Congress of Dermatology, World Congress of Pediatric Dermatology, ASPCR, IPCC, Dermacon,Dermazone, ISPD conferences.
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Richard Marais
CRUK Manchester Institute
Title of talk: BRAF and RAS Signalling: Basic Biology and Therapeutic Options
Richard Marais PhD is the Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute. Professor Marais is a world-leading expert on the underlying causes of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Much of his work has focused on how the protein BRAF drives melanoma progression, using this knowledge to develop novel therapeutic strategies for melanoma patients. Damage to BRAF locks the protein in an active form that drives cell growth and this work has already led to the discovery of new drugs that are effective in this disease.
Richard obtained his BSc in Genetics and Microbiology from the University College London in 1985, after which he undertook his PhD in Comparative Studies on Protein Kinase C Isotypes at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in London, which he completed in 1989. He then worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, until 1993. Richard then moved to The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London as an Independent Postdoctoral Research Fellow. It was at the ICR where Richard spent the next 19 years of his career focusing on cell signalling in melanoma, developing a particular interest in the role of oncogenic BRAF. During his time at the ICR, Richard progressed to Team Leader of the Signal Transduction Team in 1998, then to Professor of Molecular Oncology in 2007, to Deputy Chair, Section of Cell and Molecular Biology, in 2008, and finally to the Division Head, Division of Cancer Biology, in 2011.
Throughout his career, Richard has received numerous accolades for his contributions to cancer research. In 2007, he was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2009, he was elected Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences and became an EMBO member. In 2011, he received the Society for Melanoma Research Estella Medrano Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to melanoma research.
He became Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (previously named the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research) in February 2012 where he also continues to head his Molecular Oncology Group and in 2013 was named President-Elect of the EACR.
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Richard Spritz
University of Colorado School of Medicine, United States
Title of talk: The Genetics of Vitiligo and Associated Autoimmune Diseases
Dr. Richard Spritz is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Human Medical Genetics and Genomics Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He received his B.S. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his M.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, and served internship and residency in Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He subsequently undertook advanced clinical and research training in Human Genetics at Yale University School of Medicine, where he was involved in the earliest work on recombinant DNA and human genes, including the first cloning of human genes and identification of the first human disease gene mutation. Dr. Spritz was Professor of Medical Genetics and Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1981-1998, after which he moved to Colorado.
Over the past 30 years, Dr. Spritz and his associates have studied genes involved in causing many different human diseases, including hemoglobin disorders, albinism and other skin diseases, autoimmune diseases such as vitiligo and thyroid disease, and cleft lip/palate, and published over 225 papers on these studies. For over 15 years, his lab has focused on vitiligo, carrying out extensive genetic studies that established the autoimmune basis of the disease, identifying about 50 genes that underlie vitiligo susceptibility, and establishing a link to melanoma. These studies highlight an autoimmune "circuit" that connects cell damage, immune triggering, and autoimmune killing of melanocytes, providing new potential pathways and targets for novel vitiligo therapeutics.
For his work, Dr. Spritz has received many honors and awards, including the first annual research award from the Society for Pediatric Dermatology, the Research Achievement Award from the American Skin Association, the Alumni Fellow medal from the Pennsylvania State University, the Tanioku Kihei memorial lectureship from the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology, the Seiji memorial lectureship award, and this year's Takeuchi Medal presented at this IPCC.
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Richard Sturm
Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australia
Title of talk: Painting by Numbers - Genetics of Human Pigmentation and Ancestry
A/Prof Rick Sturm trained as a molecular biologist at the University of Adelaide obtaining his PhD in 1985, then completed a 4-year period as a CRI Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA. Following this postdoctoral period identifying human transcription factors and investigating gene regulatory mechanisms of the SV40 virus he was awarded an Australian ARC QEII Fellow at the University of Queensland. He began a study of human pigmentation genetics and melanoma in the 1990s and has been an Australian NHMRC Senior Research Fellow since 2003. Two sabbatical periods during this time have allowed him to work collaboratively with investigators at the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, USA. He is currently using a combination of techniques to examine the function of common human gene polymorphisms and genetic association with a variety of traits. The focus of his research group is concerned with investigations of melanocyte biology and pigmentation genetics. Major goals are to understand the genetic basis of human physical traits including skin, hair and eye colour and determine how they are associated with skin UV-sensitivity and skin cancer risk. In addition he is studying the process of development and differentiation of the melanocytic cell lineage, as well as the interaction and communication of melanocytes with keratinocytes. In a recent collaborative effort, the relationship between the form, structure and colour of existing types of moles and their subsequent risk of developing into melanoma is being examined in a collection of volunteers derived from the Queensland population.
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Robert Ballotti
INSERM, France
Title of talk: Senescence in Melanoma: A Stab in the Back?
During the last 20 years Robert Ballotti has focused his research on the studying of the molecular mechanisms that control the growth and differentiation of melanocytes, as well as the alterations of these processes in the development of melanoma. He has been involved in many studies on MITF, a transcription factor that plays a key role in the biology of melanocytes and melanomas.
Robert Ballotti is now the head of an INSERM team, in the Mediterranean Center of Molecular Medicine, in Nice, France. Recently, he identified a germ line mutation in MITF that predispose carriers to melanoma and renal cancer. Robert Ballotti has demonstrated the role of MITF in the transition between the melanoma initiating cells and their more differentiated and less tumorigenic progeny. He has also involved MITF in the prevention of senescence in melanoma. Interestingly, senescence of melanoma cells induced by the loss of MITF, chemotherapeutic drugs and targeted therapies is associated with a production of a pro-tumorigenic secretome that might favor resistance and relapses.
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Robert Schwartz
New Jersey Medical School, United States
Robert A. Schwartz MD, MPH, DSc (Hon), FRCP Edin, FAAD is entering his third decade as Professor and Head, Dermatology, Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School, one of the eight medical schools in the New York City metropolitan area. He is on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Dermatology, a member honoris causa of the national dermatologic societies of 21 foreign countries, and has authored a total of 15 books and monographs, over 275 book chapters, 500 articles, and 200 abstracts and other publications. He has 65 publications on Kaposi’s sarcoma alone and more on other types of skin cancer and cutaneous cancer syndromes. The second edition of his book, Skin Cancer Recognition and Management, was published in 2008 by Wiley-Blackwell. He is a member of numerous editorial boards. In 1981 he led one of the three groups that first described AIDS-associated Kaposi sarcoma. In 1980 Edmund Klein, Robert A. Schwartz and associates authored an article published in Cancer, which is today considered a breakthrough employing low-dosage and hence non-immunosuppressive therapy with vinblastine for Kaposi's sarcoma. Professor Schwartz is credited with the original description of subtypes telangiectatic Kaposi's sarcoma, keloidal Kaposi's sarcoma and ecchymotic Kaposi’s sarcoma. He also first described florid cutaneous papillomatosis, also known as the Schwartz-Burgess syndrome, and acral acanthosis nigricans (acral acanthotic anomaly). He is two-time President of the Dermatology Section of the New York Academy of Medicine (2004-2005; 2011-2012), and a recipient of the Hieronymus Fracastorus Medal of the Italian Dermatologic Society 2003 and the Academia Medica Wratislaviensis Polonia Medal, Awarded by University Rector Magnificus, Medical University of Wroclaw (Breslau) 2007. The University President of China Medical University bestowed the title of Honorary Professor upon him in a formal ceremony in China in November 2012.
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Roger Hanlon
Marine Biological Laboratory, and Brown University, United States
Title of talk: Ocean Colors Exemplified: Rapid Adaptive Skin Coloration and Patterning in Cephalopods
Roger Hanlon is Senior Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA; Director, Program in Sensory Physiology & Behavior at MBL; and Professor (MBL) of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University. He is a diving biologist who uses digital imagery (stills, video, hyperspectral) to analyze rapid adaptive camouflage and communication in cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish) and fishes. He was trained in marine sciences at Florida State University and University of Miami, and studied sensory ecology as a postdoctoral fellow at Cambridge University, UK. For nearly 20 years he worked as tenured faculty at the Marine Biomedical Institute (U Texas Medical Branch). In 1995, he moved to the MBL as Founding Director of the Marine Resources Center until 2003. He has hosted and mentored >30 graduate students and postdocs during his career.
Recently his laboratory has focused on a multidisciplinary effort to quantify animal camouflage and determine its anatomical mechanisms, touching subjects as varied as visual perception, psychophysics, neuroscience, behavioral ecology, skin ultrastructure, spectrometry, image analyses, computer vision, and art. Laboratory research involves live-animal, hypothesis-driven experimentation on several key aspects of the adaptive camouflage and signaling systems. Overall, 205 peer-reviewed scientific journal papers have been published on these and related subjects. Collaborations with materials scientists and engineers aim to develop new classes of materials that change appearance based on the pigments and reflectors in cephalopod skin. Active public outreach featuring these charismatic marine animals has been conducted recently with NOVA, BBC, Discovery, National Geographic, TEDx, and the New York Times.
http://hermes.mbl.edu/mrc/hanlon/index.html
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Sandipan Dhar
Institute of Child Health, India
Dr.Sandipan Dhar is a renowned Pediatric Dermatologist & an Expert on Atopic Dermatitis. Currently he is the Professor and Head, Department of Pediatric Dermatology, Institute of Child Health, Kolkata, India.
Dr. Dhar has so far published more than 180 scientific papers in various indexed journals of which more than 70 papers are on Paediatric Dermatology and 40 papers on Atopic Dermatitis. His papers have been abstracted and quoted in Year Books of Dermatology, various standard text books of Dermatology & Paediatric Dermatology. He has authored "Colour atlas and synopsis of Paediatric Dermatology", the first book On Pediatric Dermatology from India. He has authored 4 more books on Dermatology for the practicing dermatologists, postgraduate students and internists. He is the Editor Emeritus of Indian Journal Of Dermatology and a member of the editorial board of several journals in Dermatology and Paediatric Dermatology. He delivered the most prestigeous Oration of Indian association Of Dermatologist Venereologists and Leprologists (IADVL), Dr. B M Ambady Oration on his work on Atopic Dermatitis at the 32nd National Conference of IADVL at Bangalore in January, 2009.
His fields of interest are Paediatric Dermatology, Atopic Dermatitis, Urticaria and Adverse cutaneous drug eruptions.
He is one of the key persons for establishing the subspeciality 'Pediatric Dermatology' in India and is currently the President of 'Indian Society For Pediatric Dermatology(ISPD)'. He has been invited to Chair a Symposium on Atopic Dermatitis at 23rd World Congress of Dermatology, Vancouver, 2015.
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Sanjeev Mulekar
Henry Ford Hospital, United States
Title of talk: Surgical Treatment in Difficult Sites
Sanjeev V Mulekar MD is a member of the Indian Association of dermatologists and Indian medical Association and is registered with Indian Medical Council and Saudi Medical Council.
He worked at Noble Clinics Pvt Ltd in Mumbai and Pune in India till 2003 and subsequently joined National Center for Vitiligo and psoriasis, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Mulekar has special interest and has focused his practice to treat vitiligo patients. He pioneered the non cultured melanocyte transplantation – a latest technique in the surgical management of vitiligo – in India and Saudi Arabia. He has trained dermatologists and surgeon in India, Brazil, Uzbekistan to perform this treatment. He has been invited to deliver lectures and perform workshops in various countries and has participated in the conferences in Dubai, Libya, Yemen and Singapore.
Dr. Mulekar has been treating vitiligo patients by this surgical technique since 1996 and has performed more than 2500 procedures till date in India and Saudi Arabia. He is actively involved in research and has published more than 25 research papers in reputed international journal like Archives of Dermatolgy, Dermatologic Surgery, Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, International Journal of Dermatology etc. He is a reviewer for reputed peer reviewed international journals.
Dr. Mulekar was trained at Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai, India as an undergraduate and postgraduate student. He was trained at Uppsala University, Sweden to perform non cultured and cultured melanocyte transplantation in 1995.
At Wimpole Aesthetic center he is available to offer consultation to vitiligo patients and to treat suitable vitiligo patients surgically.
Dr. Mulekar is associated with Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, USA as visiting Dermatologist.
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Somesh Gupta
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India
Title of talk: Treasure Hunt - Hair Follicle as a Rich Source of Melanocytes and Stem Cells for Transplantation in Vitiligo
Dr. Somesh Gupta is Additional Professor of Dermatology & Venereology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. He is holding positions in several organizations: Honarary Treasurer of Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists (IADVL), Past President of Association of Cutaneous Surgeons of India (ACSI), Regional Director for Asia-Pacific for International union against Sexually transmitted Infections (IUSTI), Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery, Joint Editor of Sexual health (Australia), Vice President of Pigmentary Dermatology Society. He has over 125 publications in indexed literature. He has edited two major books- Sexually Transmitted Infections (Elsevier), and Surgical Management of Vitiligo (Wiley). He has delivered invited talks in several international conferences including past two WCD in Seoul and Buenos Aires. His primary areas of interest are cell-based therapies in vitiligo and other skin diseases, Dermatologic Surgery and Sexually transmitted Infections.
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Stéphane Commo
L'Oréal Recherche & Innovation, France
Title of talk: Study of Human Hair Pigmentation: Insights into Hair Graying and Beyond
Head of Scalp Biology lab, in L'Oréal R&I, aimed at identifying innovative approaches to answer hair concerns, including hair graying. I have been working for L'Oréal R&I for over 20 years. My research was first focused on hair biology, especially on hair cycle and on hair follicle stem cells. Afterwards, I have been studying at cellular and molecular levels factors involved in melanocyte biology and contributing to normal pigmentation of human hair and skin. We could demonstrate that hair graying was due to the depletion of melanocyte stem cells in hair follicles and that melanocytes in human hair exhibit specific characteristics in comparison to epidermal melanocytes, especially du to the lack of DCT. My team also contributed to discover that DCT exhibits detoxifying properties in addition to its activity in melanin synthesis.
Beside my research activity, I contribute to the CMA-L'Oréal grant and to the IADVL-L'Oréal grant programs, as a jury member, that support research projects on skin and hair physiology in China and in India.
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Takahiro Kunisada
Gifu University, Japan
Title of talk: Developmental Control of Dermal Melanocytes Progenitors
Takahiro Kunisada was born in 1956 in Japan and studied biological science at Kyoto University, Faculty of Science then obtained Ph.D. in 1985 from the university under the supervision of Prof. Hideo Yamagishi. After 2 years of research on cellular aging at National Institute on Aging, NIH under the supervision of Dr. Edward L. Schneider, he came back to Japan as a assistant professor at Department of Immunopathology, Kumamoto University School of Medicine. He started to join developmental biology field foucused on B cell with professor Shin-Ichi Nishikawa and continued his work when moved to Department of Molecular Genetics, Kyoto University along with professor Nishikawa. He changed his main interest to melamocyte development and concentrated to the biological function of melanocyte growth and differentiation factors after moved to Department of Immunology, School of Life Science, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine. After assuming the full professor at Gifu Graduate School of Medicine, he is continuing his lifetime work on melanocyte development. He newly started to induce cells such as retinal pigment epithelium, melanocytes, neural crest stem cells, keratinocytes etc from ES and iPS cells to use then for cell therapy in association with colleagues in Gifu University Medical School. He is a council member of JSPCR and also IFPCS and also a panel of the Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine. He received Thomas B. Fitzpatrick Medal for Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research in 2011.
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Suat Hoon Tan
National Skin Centre, Singapore
Dr Tan Suat Hoon received her medical training at the National University of Singapore and post-graduate training specialized in dermatopathology from the UK. She has been with the National Skin Centre Singapore since May 1991, and is a Senior Consultant Dermatologist. She was the Deputy Director from June 2004, and was appointed Director of NSC in April 2014. She was the Chairman of the Chapter of Dermatologists of the College of Physicians from 2009 to 2013. She holds a Clinical Associate Professor appointment with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
Dr Tan is recognized locally and in the region for her expertise on cutaneous lymphomas and dermatopathology. She has authored more than 120 indexed publications and 5 book chapters in clinical dermatology and dermatopathology, including the Dermatology textbook, Chapter on Lipodystrophies in Dermatology 3rd edition Eds Jean Bolognia, Joseph Jorizzo, Julie Schaffer; Elsevier Saunders 2012, and co-edited Asian Skin: A Reference Color Atlas of Dermatology and Venereology, Second Edition, 2013 McGraw Hill Singapore. She serves on the national Specialist Training Committee and Residency Advisory Committee for Dermatology and chairs the Intermediate Examination Committee for the Seamless Dermatology Training program. She is a firm advocate of education and research, receiving the NSC best clinical teacher award in 2005 and 2007, and was the principal investigator or principal applicant of several external competitive grants totaling $2.2 million between 1994 to 2008. She has mentored many medical students and dermatology trainees who are now well established dermatologists in their fields.
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Thierry Passeron
University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France
Title of talk: Differences in Visible Light Induced Pigmentation According to Wavelengths: A Clinical and Histological Study in Comparison with UVB Exposure
After his medical training Thierry Passeron specialized in Dermatology in the department of Pr. Jean-Paul Ortonne in Nice University Hospital. He worked also one year in Principal Hospital of Dakar, Senegal. In 2003 he published his thesis on the use of Excimer laser in Dermatology. He worked as clinical assistant in the Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Nice from 2003-2005. Concomitantly he developed fundamental researches in the laboratory of Dr Robert Ballotti (INSERM U895). From 2005 to 2007, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Vincent J. Hearing at the National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, USA) and characterized the role of SOX9 in melanocytes and in melanoma. He passed his PhD in 2008. Since 2010, he is full Professor of Dermatology in the University hospital of Nice. He also heads the laboratory INSERM U1065 team 12, C3M dedicated to the research of melanocytic differentiation. He heads the University laser center in Nice. He has three international patents and more than 100 publications in scientific journals. His fields of research include pigmentary disorders (including melasma and vitiligo), melanoma and lasers.
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Thomas Hornyak
VA Maryland Health Care System and University of Maryland, United States
Title of talk: Functional Properties of Subsets of Melanocyte Stem Cells
Thomas J. Hornyak, M.D., Ph.D., is Chief of Dermatology for the VA Maryland Health Care System and Associate Professor of Dermatology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. He received an A.B. in Music from Princeton University and an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School. He completed residency training in dermatology at New York University Medical Center and began studies of melanocyte development and gene regulation in melanocytes during a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Biochemistry at NYU.
Dr. Hornyak's first independent research and clinical position was with the Department of Dermatology at the Henry Ford Health System. He then joined the Dermatology Branch of the National Cancer Institute, NIH, where he continued studies of basic melanocyte biology and expanding h melanoma. As a dermatologist in the NIH Clinical Center, he was both Principal Investigator and Associate Investigator on clinical research projects focused upon melanocytic nevi and the cutaneous features of select genetic cancer predisposition syndromes.
Dr. Hornyak moved to his current position in September 2011 where he oversees dermatology clinical activities for the VA Maryland system, teaches dermatology residents at the University of Maryland Medical Center, and continues basic research on melanocyte stem cells and epigenetic changes during melanoma development in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His laboratory focuses upon defining subpopulations of melanocyte progenitor cells and their contribution to the development of melanocytic neoplasms.
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Thomas Tueting
University of Bonn, Germany
Title of talk: Inflammation-induced Phenotypic Plasticity of Melanoma in Therapy Resistance and Tumor Progression
Thomas Tueting, MD, is Associate Professor of Experimental Dermatology and Head of Dermato-Oncology in the Department of Dermatology at the University Hospital Bonn. He performed his clinical education as a dermatology resident in the Departments of Dermatology at the Army Hospital Koblenz and at the University Hospital Mainz. He subsequently received basic research training in tumor immunology at the University of Pittsburgh in the laboratories of Michael Lotze and Albert DeLeo. Dr. Tueting’s Laboratory of Experimental Dermatology in Bonn has experimentally developed combinatorial T cell immunotherapy protocols in mouse models of melanoma. His group explored genetic vaccine strategies with dendritic cells, adoptive T cell transfer approaches, and the use of synthetic oligonucleotides to strongly activate the type I IFN system in the tumor microenvironment. An important finding was that simultaneous triggering of endosomal and cytosolic antiviral pattern recognition receptors supports T cell effector functions and promotes tumor cell death. Dr. Tueting pioneered the establishment of novel genetic mouse model systems that combine experimental tools of tumor immunology and tumor biology to adequately portray clinical situations observed in melanoma patients. Using this approach, his group recently discovered that progressively growing autochthonous melanomas can resist cytotoxic T cell responses directed against melanocytic differentiation antigens through reversible dedifferentiation in an inflammatory microenvironment. The inflammation-induced phenotypic plasticity may represent a more general mechanism how tumor cells resist various forms of cytotoxic therapies.
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Tobias Bald
University of Bonn, Germany
Title of talk: UV-irradiation Promotes Melanoma Metastasis
Tobias Bald, is a Post-Doc in the Laboratory of Dr. Thomas Tueting at the Department of Dermatology at the University Hospital Bonn. He studied molecular biomedicine at the University of Bonn. Subsequently, he performed his PhD thesis and received training in tumor immunology and tumor biology in the lab of experimental dermatology. In Dr. Tueting’s Laboratory in Bonn he focused on the balance between anti-tumor immunity and pro-tumorigenic inflammatory responses using genetically engineered mouse models which portray clinical situation of melanoma patients. Recently, Mr. Bald could show that targeted activation of the type I IFN system with immunostimulatory RNA in combination with blockade of immune inhibitory receptors serve as a rational strategy to expose immune cell-poor melanomas to cellular immune surveillance. Furthermore, Mr. Bald established and characterized novel genetically engineered mouse melanoma model systems to experimentally investigate the interaction between innate immune, endothelial and melanoma cells. Using these model systems, he recently demonstrated that UVB-irradiation promotes a HMGB1-Trl4 driven innate inflammatory response which reactivates embryonic programs and fosters the interaction of melanoma cells with endothelial cells leading to increased numbers of lung metastases in mice bearing carcinogen-induced primary and transplanted melanomas.
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Tomohisa Hirobe
National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Japan
Title of talk: Regulation of the Development of Mouse Melanocytes by Coat Color Genes
Dr. Tomohisa Hirobe earned his Doctor of Science from Tohoku University in 1979. He worked as Assistant (1977-1982) and Lecturer (1982-1987) at the Department of Biology of Iwate University, Morioka, Japan. From 1985 to 1986 He worked as Visiting Scientist at the Laboratory of Electron Microscopy of Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, USA. He moved to National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS), Chiba, Japan and served as Senior Researcher (1987-2001) and Team Leader (2001-2011). He also served as Full Professor of Biology at the Graduate School of Science of Chiba University from 1997 to 2011. He retired from both NIRS and Chiba University in 2011. From 2011 he has served as Senior Expert at NIRS and Guest Lecturer at Keio University and Chiba Institute of Technology. Dr. Hirobe's major scientific accomplishments include the role of α-melanocyte stimulating hormone on the proliferation and differentiation of mouse and human melanocytes; developmental biology of mouse and human melanocytes; role of coat color genes on the regulation of melanocyte development; role of tissue environment in the regulation of the proliferation and differentiation of mouse and human melanocytes; regulation of the proliferation and differentiation of mouse melanocytes by ultraviolet and ionizing radiations. These and other findings are documented in 100 original articles, reviews and book chapters. He received 2003 Science Award from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
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Wei Li
Chinese Academy of Sciences, People's Republic of China
Title of talk: Mutation of SLC24A5 Causes OCA6
Dr. Wei Li, Principle Investigator and Professor, Director of Center for Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Li was trained in Medical Sciences (1985, Gannan Medical College, China), Biochemistry (M.S., 1991, Tongji Medical University, China), Medical Genetics (Ph.D., 1997, Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences, China) and Bioinformatics (M.S., 2004, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA). He did his postdoctoral training in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, USA) from 1999 to 2004. Dr. Li and his colleagues have identified 10 hypopigmentation genes. He has published 46 peer-reviewed papers in international journals including Nature Genetics, American Journal of Human Genetics, PNAS, Blood, Journal of Cell Biology, Human Molecular Genetics, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research. His laboratory is mainly focused on the molecular and cellular mechanism in regulating lysosomal trafficking and the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles (e.g. melanosomes) by using mouse mutants of Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome, a disorder featured with oculocutaneous albinism.
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William Pavan
National Institutes of Health, United States
Title of talk: Genetic and Genomic Analyses of Pigment Cell Development and Disease
Dr. William Pavan received his B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and his Ph.D. in Physiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Shirley Tilghman at Princeton University in which he studied the developmental genetics of mouse coat color pigmentation. Subsequently, Dr. Pavan joined NHGRI in 1994, when he began a research program focused on using genomic tools and genetic manipulation of model systems to decipher genome function and to dissect gene regulatory pathways in development and disease. His primaryareas of interest include the development and diseases of melanocytes, and the lysosomal storage disorder Niemann-Pick disease, Type C. By integration of basic science research with clinical information from human patients, Dr. Pavan works to identify developmental pathways that regulate development, discover the alterations in these pathways that lead to disease, and develop paradigms for therapeutic interventions. Alongside directing his group’s research, Dr. Pavan serves as the Director of the NHGRI Intramural Training Office (ITO), where he oversees the career development of approximately 200 postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and pre-doctoral fellows and summer students. In this capacity, he affords trainees numerous avenues for career development and enhancement, providing the support and guidance necessary to create high quality scientific leaders for the future.
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Woraphong Manuskiatti
Mahidol University, Thailand
Title of talk: Laser Management of Common Pigmentary Problems in Asians
Dr. Manuskiatti is currently a Professor of Dermatology and head of Siriraj Skin Laser Center at the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Manuskiatti received his Dermatology specialty training at Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand in 1995. He subsequently completed the prestigious dermatologic laser surgery fellowship under the auspices of Dr. R. Rox Anderson at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical School, USA in 1997 and Drs. Richard E. Fitzpatrick and Mitchel P. Goldman at Dermatology Associates of San Diego County, Inc., San Diego, USA in 1998.
Dr. Manuskiatti has published over 60 original medical articles and 10 book chapters and has been involved in teaching dermatologic surgery and laser techniques to visiting physicians from Southeast Asia, at Siriraj Skin Laser Center in Thailand.
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Xuejun Zhang
Anhui Medical University, China
Title of talk: The Susceptibility Genes of Vitiligo
Xuejun Zhang graduated in clinical medicine from Anhui Medical College in 1979, received his Master's degree in immunology from Anhui Medical College in 1989, and subsequently his PhD degree in dermatology from Shanghai Medical University in 1994. He was appointed Professor at Anhui Medical University in 1994. Since 2003, he has been holding the position of president of Anhui Medical University. He is also a visiting professor at the Mayo Clinic and the University of British Columbia, Canada, an exchange professor at University of Hongkong.
Prof. Zhang is currently a board member of International League of Dermatological Societies, (ILDS), present of Asian Dermatological Association, honorary president of Chinese Society of Dermatology, and vice-president of Chinese Dermatologists' Association. He serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and an editorial board member for five journals, Plos One, British Journal of Dermatology, Journal of Dermatological Science, International Journal of Dermatology and Annals of Dermatology. He is the Chief Editor of the Textbook of Dermavenereology (5th, 6th,7th and 8th editions, in Chinese).
Prof. Zhang's research interests are mainly focused on the genetics and genomics of skin disorders and other complex diseases. He has published more than 700 papers in international( 235 SCI papers) and national journals including 1 article in the New England Journal of Medicine and 17 papers in Nature Genetics, 22 papers in Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
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Yong Kwang Tay
Changi General Hospital, Singapore
Associate Professor (Dr) Yong-Kwang Tay, FRCP, is presently a Senior Consultant and was the founding Chief (2002 - 2012) of the department of dermatology at Changi General Hospital, Singapore. Dr Tay did his postgraduate training at the National Skin Centre, Singapore, University of Colorado School of Medicine at Denver, the Baylor College of Medicine at Houston, the Birmingham regional skin laser centre, UK and the Laser and Vascular Anomaly Section, Malmo University Hospital, Sweden.
Dr Tay has a special interest in the fields of pediatric dermatology and dermatologic laser surgery. He has more than a hundred publications in peer-reviewed journals and is a reviewer for numerous journals. He has written a chapter on hypopigmentation disorders in the textbook of Neonatal and Infant Dermatology, a chapter on hair disorders in the textbook of Pediatric Dermatology and is the Editor of the Textbook of Laser and Light Dermatology in the Asian Skin. He is a member of the Editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Pediatric Dermatology and the Journal of Dermatological Treatment.
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Yann Barrandon
University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland
Title of talk: Regenerative Medicine of Skin
Yann Barrandon, MD PhD, is joint professor of Stem Cell Dynamics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and Lausanne University (UniL), and Head of the Department of Experimental Surgery at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). YB graduated in Dermatology in Paris, where he also obtained his PhD on the long-term cultivation of human hematopoietic stem cells. YB moved to the USA and worked as a post-doctoral fellow (1982-1990) at Stanford Medical School and at Harvard Medical School (HMS). While at HMS, YB worked with Pr. Howard Green, a pioneer in cell therapy, and participated to the first transplantations of autologous cultured epidermal stem cells on extensively burned patients. YB moved back to France in 1990 as Director of Research at the INSERM and Head of Laboratory at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris). His research in Paris was devoted to stem cells in the skin; he demonstrated the presence of multipotent clonogenic stem cells in hair follicles and successfully brought epidermal stem cells from bench to bedside. Since 2002, YB works in Lausanne where he investigates the potency of various tissue stem cells, among which that of the cornea and the thymus. YB is a member of the EMBO, of the Academia Europaea, a member of the Committee for Academic Promotion at the School of Life Sciences EPFL and of the Research Commission at EPFL. YB has also contributed to the success of the skin cell therapy unit at the Singapore General Hospital and is now Initiative Director of the Joint Doctoral Program between Singapore-A*Star and the EPFL, and a consultant for the Institute of Medical Biology A*Star, Biopolis.
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Zalfa Abdel-Malek
University of Cincinnati, United States
Title of talk 1: Paracrine Factors as Guardians of Genomic Stability of Melanocytes
Title of talk 2: Professor Mizoguchi, A Bright Star that Shines on the East and West, and Will Not Fade
Dr. Abdel-Malek's interest in pigment cell and melanoma research was sparked when she was a graduate student in the late Mac Hadley's laboratory at the University of Arizona. Having trained in the laboratory of a comparative endocrinologist, she developed interest in hormones, their receptors and mechanisms of action. She joined the Department of Dermatology at the University of Cincinnati in 1985, where she did her postgraduate training under the guidance of James Nordlund, M.D. Her research career has mainly focused on the regulation of human pigmentation, the response of melanocytes to their microenvironment and to environmental ultraviolet radiation (UVR). She is best known for her research on the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) and its physiological agonists and antagonists. She discovered that this receptor is pivotal for counteracting the damaging effects of UVR by reducing oxidative stress and activating DNA repair pathways, in addition to stimulating eumelanin synthesis. Currently, she is continuing with her investigation of the role of the MC1R in melanoma predisposition, the role of various paracrine factors in the UVR response of melanocytes, and the DNA damage response of melanocytes to UVR.
She has collaborated with many researchers from the different pigment cell research societies, and has trained many young investigators from different countries. She has had many leadership roles, as President of the PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research (PASPCR), President of the International Federation for Pigment Cell Societies (IFPCS), and Member of the Steering Committee for the Society for melanoma Research. She has received many prestigious awards, including the Aaron B. Lerner Award from the PASPCR, the Myron Gordon Award from the IFPCS, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the PASPCR.
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Ze'ev Ronai
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, United States
Title of talk: Rewired Signaling in Melanoma – A Journey along the PDK1 Axis
Ze'ev Ronai obtained his PhD degree in 1985 from The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel and performed postdoctoral research in Columbia University, New York. He established his lab at the American Health Foundation in Valhalla, New York, and later moved to Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. In 2005 he moved to the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla California, where he is currently Professor, Scientific Director, and Deputy Director of the NCI-designated Cancer Center.
Dr. Ronai's laboratory has been studying fundamental mechanisms underlying the mammalian stress response in non-transformed and cancer cells, using melanoma as a model. Studies on stress kinase (JNK), transcription factors (Jun, ATF2), and the downstream target (PDK1) revealed their role in melanoma development and progression. The lab interest in the cellular stress response also includes ubiquitin ligases that including Siah1/2 (in hypoxia and UPR) and RNF5 (in autophagy and metabolic homeostasis) and their deregulation in cancer, including prostate breast cancer and melanoma.
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Speaker
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Title of talk:
Bio
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