Research Accomplishments

Dermatology research at The University of Chicago encompasses a wide range of topics, from melanoctye biology, melanoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, and photobiology/phototherapy. The Section is also a center for clinical trials of new therapeutic modalities for serious skin conditions such as severe psoriasis.

In fiscal year 05, research by Dermatology faculty led to two key discoveries:

• Discovery that the Pax3 transcription factor is expressed in melanocyte stem cells in the adult skin and helps maintain the normal behavior in these cells as reported in the 2005 issue of Nature (Lang)
• Described a new mechanism for transcriptional control of melanocyte stem cell survival and differentiation. Pax3 can repress differentiation and promote stem cell survival. Signals from outside the cells can attenuate this repression and promote differentiation at the expense of stem cell maintenance (Lang).

Education and Training

Dermatology faculty play a major role in medical education, directed at students, residents, fellows and other faculty members. The Section provides a critical experience for medical students in ambulatory practice across a broad spectrum of patients, from pediatric to adult dermatology. Residents in other medical specialties routinely rotate through dermatology. In addition, the dermatology residency program is fully accredited for ten residency slots and has graduated hundreds of clinicians and medical educators over its long history. Finally, the section's accredited fellowship program trains physicians for further specialization in dermatopathology.

Patient Care

The dermatology faculty are committed to serving a large and diverse patient community, providing the highest levels of care in a wide range of dermatology specialties. Our outpatient clinic, located on the campus of the University of Chicago, routinely sees over 20,000 patient visits per year. The faculty provides services at Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County, the Palos Heights satellite office of the Department of Pediatrics and the University of Chicago Hospitals' Friends Center. The faculty also provides dermatology consultations on inpatients admitted to all services at The University of Chicago Hospitals. In addition to the clinical dermatology practice, the Section maintains a busy dermatopathology laboratory, providing a full range of dermatopathology services to our patients and network of referring physicians. Recently the section enhanced its clinical services with development of new programs in laser treatment. Several faculty are board-certified in multiple specialties, including dermatopathology, anatomic pathology, dermatologic immunology and pediatrics.

University of Chicago Diversity Committee Medicine Visiting Clerkship Program (MVCP)

This program is sponsored by the Department of Medicine’s Diversity Committee. It provides support for fourth-year minority (African American, Native American, and Hispanic American) medical students to participate in internal medicine rotations which includes dermatology. Please click on the following link for more information:

http://diversity.bsd.uchicago.edu/clerkship.html