American Skin Association Announces New Board Member Emma Guttman, MD, PhD

NEW YORK, April 17, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American Skin Association (ASA) today announced that Dr. Emma Guttman, a leading expert on inflammatory skin diseases, has become a member of its Board of Directors.  Dr. Guttman is the Sol and Clara Kest Professor of Dermatology, Vice Chair for Research at the Department of Dermatology, Director of the Center for Excellence in Eczema, and the Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. Dr. Guttman's exceptional experience in atopic dermatitis (AD)/eczema, contact/occupational dermatitis, alopecia areata, and psoriasis bring a unique perspective to the Board. She currently serves as a member of ASA's Medical Advisory Committee.

"I am proud to announce the addition of Dr. Guttman to ASA's Board of Directors. Her noteworthy record of success in the field of dermatology will be a tremendous asset to ASA as we continue our crucial dual missions of funding vital research and educating the public on the importance of skin health and sun safety," said Howard P. Milstein, Chairman of ASA's Board of Directors.

"As president of ASA, I welcome Dr. Guttman. She is a perfect addition to the ASA Board. I look forward to working with her as we continue to fund vital research in the hope of finding cures for those suffering from skin diseases," said Dr. David Norris.

Dr. Guttman earned an MD from Sackler School of Medicine at Tel-Aviv University and a PhD from the Bar-Ilan University Ramat-Gan, Israel. She completed her first dermatology residency with the Dermatology Department at Rambam Medical Center/Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel. After obtaining her Israeli Board certification in dermatology, Dr. Guttman moved to the United States to pursue a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at The Rockefeller University in the Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology. Upon completion of her fellowship, she became board-certified by the American Board of Dermatology. She obtained her second dermatology residency training at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York.

Dr. Guttman has performed groundbreaking research and published extensively on inflammatory skin diseases. Her research made paradigm-shifting discoveries on the immunologic basis of atopic dermatitis (AD) in humans, enriching the understanding of the pathophysiology of this common disorder and opening the door to new therapeutics. Dr. Guttman has developed comprehensive molecular maps of AD, defining skin differentiation and immune-circuits characterizing this disease. She has established the reversibility of the AD phenotype and defined a series of disease-specific and response-dependent biomarkers that are now accelerating testing of novel immune, pathway-specific drugs in this disease. Her research is the first to identify in humans a distinct population of T-cells that independently produce IL-22, conceptualizing AD as a Th2/Th22-polarized disease. Dr. Guttman is now testing (both clinically and mechanistically) multiple targeted therapeutics for AD that target Th2, Th22, and Th17/IL-23 axis. Recently, she has extended her research interest to alopecia areata, in which her findings are also translated to possible novel therapeutic targets.

Together with Dr. Amy Paller, Dr. Guttman founded the International Eczema Council (IEC), for which she is President Elect. In 2015, she was elected as a member to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), as well as the American Dermatological Society (ADA), and was the recipient of the prestigious Young Investigator Award in 2011 from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). She also received the Dermatology Foundation's Physician-Scientist Career Development Award, and the Everett C. Fox Award for best clinical research at the Residents & Fellows Symposium of the AAD.

ABOUT AMERICAN SKIN ASSOCIATION
ASA is a unique collaboration of patients, families, advocates, physicians and scientists, and has evolved over thirty-one years into a leading force in efforts to defeat melanoma, skin cancer and important inflammatory and genetic skin diseases. Established to serve the now more than 100 million Americans – one third of the U.S. population – afflicted with skin disorders, the organization's mission remains to: advance research, champion skin health – particularly among children, and drive public awareness about skin disease. For more information, visit americanskin.org.

SOURCE American Skin Association