National Psoriasis Foundation announces early-career fellowships

The National Psoriasis Foundation recently announced that 11 early-career physicians each received a 1-year, $50,000 Medical Dermatology Fellowship for researching psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

The fellowships are intended to encourage “up-and-coming” physicians to dedicate their careers to studying and treating psoriatic disease, according to a press release.

The Dr. Mark G. Lebwohl Medical Dermatology Fellowship, which recognizes Mark G. Lebwohl, MD, chairman emeritus of the National Psoriasis Foundation Medical Board, was awarded to Kimberly Chun, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, who will study the Koebner phenomenon, when an injury to skin triggers or worsens psoriasis, according to the release.

National Psoriasis Foundation Amgen Medical Dermatology Fellowships, supported by a grant from Amgen, were awarded to the following:

Jennifer Day, MD, of Northwestern University, will examine safety and effectiveness of systemic medications and phototherapy in pediatric patients with psoriasis by studying medical records.
Tiago Matos, MD, of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Center, plans to use DNA sequencing of T-cells to determine different variations of T-cells in psoriasis.
Michael Milliken, MD, MPH, of the University of Utah, plans to update the Utah Psoriasis Initiative, a patient registry, with new software to help improve research ability.
Megan Noe, MD, MPH, of the University of Pennsylvania, will examine the connection between liver and blood vessel disease and psoriasis severity through the use of the iHope medical database.
Michel Pablo, MD, of Baylor Research Institute, plans to track the amount of calcium in the arteries to study heart disease risk in patients with psoriasis.
Reason Wilken, MD, of the University of California, Davis, who will study the presence of glycan in the immune cells and blood to understand how the sugar is involved in psoriasis and autoimmune diseases.
Mary Jane Williams, MD, of the University of Southern California, plans on conducting a clinical trial to study the effectiveness of collaborative health in treating psoriasis.
Marten Winge, MD, PhD, of Stanford University, plans to study the possible cause of psoriasis through a gene mutation involving the rac1 protein.
Shaowei Wu, MD, PhD, of Brown University, plans to study the role of alcohol, tobacco, obesity and other risk factors may contribute in the cause of psoriatic disease, using the National Nurses’ Health Study database.

Reference: www.psoriasis.org