In a press release from Penn Medicine, Aimee Payne, MD, PhD, Professor of Dermatology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the recently named President-Elect of the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID), detailed the broader applications of dermatology research in the field of medicine. Dr. Payne explained that dermatology research has the potential to boost the understanding of cellular mechanisms, novel treatments, cell types found elsewhere in the body, and diseases like cancer and autoimmunity. In 2017, Dr. Payne cofounded Cabaletta Bio, a biotechnology company that focuses on chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy for patients with autoimmune diseases. Currently, her company is working on a phase I clinical trial using a novel chimeric autoantibody receptor T-cell therapy approach to target B cells in patients with muscle-specific tyrosine kinase myasthenia gravis. As President-Elect of SID, Dr. Payne intends to encourage researchers to follow their interests in data and innovation to uncover breakthroughs in dermatologic science. “Throughout my involvement with SID, I had opportunities to learn from peers and mentors and identify the important scientific questions left to be answered while fostering the next generation of skin researchers. It’s an organization that inspires,” Dr. Payne concluded.
July 26, 2023