Seminar Report

Richard D. Granstein, MD (Course dermatology biology Dr. Granstein joined the faculty of the Department of Dermatology at School and the 1984. In 1995, he left Harvard to become chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Dermatologist-in-Chief at the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Granstein’s research interests center on the regulation of immunity within the skin and the relationship of the skin immune system to the development of skin cancers. He and his co-workers demonstrated that epidermal Langerhans cells can present tumor antigens for in vivo antitumor immunity. He also has a special interest in the regulation of the immune system by stress and the nervous system and, along with his colleagues, was the first to show that Langerhans cell function could be regulated by products of nerves. His clinical interests include autoimmune disorders of the skin, skin cancer and psoriasis. Georg Stary, MD (Co-Course Director) is a dermatologist who specializes in infectious and immunological disorders. Dr. Stary grew up in Vienna, Austria, and graduated from Medical University of Vienna. He completed his residency at the Vienna General Hospital / Medical University of Vienna and performed several research projects under Prof. Stingl’s supervision. After his residency, Dr. Stary worked for 4 years as postdoctoral research fellow in Prof. von Andrian’s lab at Harvard Medical School, Boston. Dr. Stary’s research interests include the cellular immune system of the skin and mucosa, host-pathogen interactions and clinical translation of his findings. Recent publications include a major paper on a new mucosal vaccine design in Science and the evaluation of tissue-resident immune cells in Blood, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Science Immunology and Science Translation Medicine. He is a peer reviewer for multiple major journals in dermatology and immunology. Dr. Stary’s research efforts have earned him grants from the Austrian Science Fund, Vienna Science and Technology Fund, Max-Kade Foundation and Austrian Central Bank. Dr. Stary is currently on the faculty of Medical University of Vienna as Associate Professor of Dermatology and examines dermatological patients as senior physician. He is Co-Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases and Adjunct Principal Investigator at CeMM – Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He lives in Vienna with his wife Victoria and children Simon, David, Anna and Benjamin. Wolfgang Bauer, MD is a dermatologist from Vienna with a keen interest in the skin immune system. Dr. Bauer grew up in Germany and Austria, graduated from Vienna Medical University and completed his dermatology residency at the Division of Immunology, Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the Department of Dermatology of the Medical University of Vienna. His main research interests include cellular and molecular immunology of the skin with a focus on work relying on ex vivo isolated cell populations. In addition, he has been working on cutaneous lymphomas and myeloproliferative skin diseases. Recent publications include a microscopic evaluation of innate lymphoid cells in human skin as well as works on rare subtypes of cutaneous lymphomas. Dr. Bauer currently serves as a senior physician at the Department of Dermatology. He lives in Vienna with his wife Verena and their children Pauline and Levi. Joanna L. Harp, MD is a dermatologist who specializes in complex medical dermatology and inpatient dermatology. Dr. Harp grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and completed her undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She returned to Texas for medical school and graduated from Baylor College of Medicine and completed her dermatology residency at University of California San Francisco, where she served as chief resident. Dr. Harp’s practice includes general dermatology and dermatologic surgery, with a specific clinical interest in complex medical dermatology and skin disorders related to internal disease. Her research interests include autoimmune dermatology, cutaneous vasculitis, and cutaneous drug reactions. In addition to her outpatient practice, she serves as Director of the dermatology consultation service at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Recent publications include a review of pyoderma gangrenosum in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology as well as a review of severe cutenaous drug eruptions in Seminars in Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Harp is currently on the faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital as Assistant Professor of Dermatology. She lives in New York City with her husband Michael. Kira Minkis, MD, PhD specializes in the treatment and prevention of skin cancer. The Mohs micrographic surgical technique allows for the highest potential cure rate for high-risk non-melanoma skin cancers while removing the least possible amount of tissue. Dr. Minkis also has extensive training in surgical removal of early-stage melanoma with precise microscopic examination of the surgical margin. Due to her extensive research experience in the role that the immune system plays in skin cancer, Dr. Minkis is very interested in caring for patients at high risk for skin cancer development, such as those with altered immune systems following organ transplantation. Dr. Minkis has published in multiple peer reviewed journals, has co-authored numerous book chapters and has lectured at many national meetings. Dr. Minkis received her Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry with Honors at the New York University. She pursued her medical education and doctorate in molecular oncology and immunology at New York University School of Medicine. Her doctoral dissertation research focused on studying the immune response to melanoma and development of a therapeutic vaccine for melanoma. Dr. Minkis completed her training in dermatology at New York Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was awarded the Distinguished House Staff Award. Following her residency training, she completed a fellowship in Procedural Dermatology and Mohs micrographic surgery at Northwestern University and, in addition, was one of the first seven dermatologists in the US to have completed the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery Cosmetic Dermatologic Surgery Fellowship. As a Weill Cornell-trained dermatologist, Dr. Minkis strives to continue the tradition of excellence in patient care and scholarly pursuits that distinguishes the Weill Cornell Department of Dermatology. Christine She is of the Clinical Study EB a designated national center of for Epidermolysis bullosa within the ERN (European Reference Network) Skin and is head of the hospitals’ outpatient clinic for rare diseases. In addition, she established a multidisciplinary Paediatric Dermatology clinic in 2020 and is Scientific Secretary of the Austrian Association of Paediatric Dermatology since 2018, when she also became the Secretary of the Austrian Academy for Dermatological Education. Dr. Prodinger lives in Salzburg with her family that includes her two children Valentin and Laetitia. Nikolaus Romani, PhD is an immunologist who studies antigen-presenting cells of the skin, in particular dendritic cells with a focus on Langerhans cells, the dendritic cell variant of the epidermis. He is interested in dissecting their roles in the generation of immunity and tolerance in cancer and infection models in vivo and the ultimate translation of this knowledge to human medicine. Dr. Romani obtained his PhD in biology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in 1983. He did his post-doctoral training at Rockefeller University, New York, USA, in the lab of 2011 Nobel laureate Dr. Ralph Steinman, discoverer of dendritic cells. He became associate professor in 1990 and professor in 2012. Dr. Romani and his colleague Dr. Gerold Schuler helped make Innsbruck one of the first "dendritic cell strongholds" outside the United States in the 1990s. The Experimental Dermatology Unit at the Department of Dermatology at the Medical University of Innsbruck is focusing on immunization approaches that target defined subsets of skin dendritic cells by means of antibodies against antigen uptake receptors. The ultimate goal is to induce robust immunity, e.g. against cancer antigens, which will help to augment patients' responses to modern immune checkpoint therapies of cancer. He is a co-editor of Handbook of Dendritic Cells: Biology, Diseases and Therapies and is a recipient of several awards. He initiated and promoted the development of a strong dendritic cell research group and the establishment of the Laboratory for Langerhans Cell Research under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Patrizia Stoitzner at the Innsbruck Dermatology Department. Simona Saluzzo, MD, PhD is a clinical scientist interested in skin and mucosal immunology. Dr. Saluzzo grew up in the city of Turin, Italy, where she completed her medical degrees at the Medical University of Turin. She then started a PhD in Vienna, at the department of infection biology and CeMM (Center of Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Science) where she focused on basic research in innate immunity at mucosal level. She performed part of her PhD at the LMB (Laboratory of Molecular Biology) in Cambridge, UK, where she deepened her understanding of innate mucosal immune responses, particularly studying Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILCs) and type 2 immune responses during infection. Her research efforts revealed new understanding on ILC2s-mediated immune changes in the lung at the time of birth and its consequences in the responses to lung infections. She received different Prizes, the most recent being the Clemens von Pirquet Prize of the Austrian Society of Allergology and Immunology (OeGAI). Dr. Saluzzo completed her PhD in July 2018 and she is curre