American Skin Association Medical Advisory Committee Announces New Member Emma Guttman, MD, PhD

News provided by

Feb 01, 2017, 09:05 ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American Skin Association (ASA) today announced that Dr. Emma Guttman, a renowned educator and researcher, will become a member of its Medical Advisory Committee. Dr. Guttman is Vice Chair of Research in the Dermatology Department, and Professor of Dermatology and Immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. She is also Director of the Center for Excellence in Eczema and the Occupational/Contact Dermatitis Clinic and the Director of the Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases at Mount Sinai. Dr. Guttman brings exceptional experience in atopic dermatitis/eczema, contact/occupational dermatitis, alopecia areata, and psoriasis to the Medical Advisory Committee.

"I am delighted that Dr. Guttman will be joining ASA's Medical Advisory Committee. She has an exemplary record of success in the field of dermatology and will be a tremendous asset to ASA as we further our goals of improving the lives of individuals affected by skin cancers and inflammatory skin diseases. I look forward to her participation," said Howard P. Milstein, Chairman of ASA's Board of Directors.

ASA's Medical Advisory Committee, composed of leading physicians and scientists, has supported the work of more than 250 investigators, ranging from gifted young researchers in the earliest phases of their careers to acknowledged leaders in their fields. The program also supports medical students committing themselves to the study of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer and other skin diseases.

"We welcome Dr. Guttman to the Medical Advisory Committee. She is a wonderful addition to our committee, which oversees the annual grant review and award process. I look forward to working with her as we continue to fund vital research in the hope to find a cure for those suffering from skin diseases," said Dr. David Norris, President of ASA and Co-Chair of ASA's Medical Advisory Committee.

Since the Medical Advisory Committee's inception in 1996, ASA funding for grants has grown exponentially. Grants are concentrated in carefully selected areas – melanoma, non-melanoma skin cancer, psoriasis and inflammatory diseases, vitiligo and pigment cell disorders, and childhood skin diseases. Although recipients have pursued investigations in subjects ranging from acne to stem cell replacement, many have chosen to focus on melanoma – the most fatal of all skin diseases.

ASA has also provided highly significant special research awards to established investigators studying melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. ASA has promoted the early careers of many talented young investigators, and has had a profound positive impact on both dermatology research and clinical care of dermatologic disease.

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, 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 the testing of novel immune pathway-specific drugs to treat 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. She has recently also extended her research interest to alopecia areata in which her findings are again 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

The ASA is a unique collaboration of patients, families, advocates, physicians and scientists, and has evolved over thirty 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