Speakers

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Speakers at London Dermatopathology Symposium 2018

 

 

 

Sasi Attili

Sasi Attili (India)

Dr. Sasi Kiran Attili is a Consultant Dermatologist and Dermatopathologist, currently practicing at Visakhapatnam, India. He graduated from Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam in 2002 and subsequently did his General Medical Training at Sandwell General Hospital, Birmingham. He obtained his MRCP in 2004 and subsequently did a 1.5 year fellowship in Photodermatology with Prof. Ferguson (Dundee). In 2006, he obtained a dermatology training number (Ninewells Hospital, Dundee) and was awarded his CCT in 2010. He had a keen interest in Dermatopathology and did an part-time 2-year fellowship with Dr. Alan Evans (Dundee), along with a short 3-month stint at Warwick with Dr. Richard Carr. He was awarded the International Diploma in Dermatopathology (Frankfurt) in 2012. He relocated to India in 2014 and has successfully set up his own dermatology clinic (Visakha Institute of Skin & Allergy). He also runs an online dermatology consultation service (onlineskinspecialist.com). He is also the founding member of LDPath-India, an overseas venture of LDPath-UK. He has a special interest in pigmentary disorders and has a number of publications to his name. He has been a speaker and various national and international dermatology and dermatopathology meetings/conferences.

 

Rami Al-Rohil (USA)

Rami Al-Rohil is an assistant professor in the department of pathology, microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University. He has completed his anatomic and clinical pathology residency training in Albany Medical Center (Albany, NY) followed by surgical pathology and Dermatopathology fellowship training at MD Anderson Cancer Center. His areas of interest are neoplastic and non-neoplastic Dermatopathology and bone/soft tissue pathology.

 

Meenakshi Batrani (India)

Dr. Meenakshi Batrani is a consultant dermatopathologist in Delhi Dermpath Laboratory, a unit of Delhi Dermatology Group, an academic group practice based in New Delhi, India. Dr. Batrani is a graduate of Lady Harding Medical College, New Delhi. She completed her residency in Pathology from T.N. Medical College & B.Y.L. Nair Hospital, Mumbai, followed by, three years of senior residency at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research & R.M.L. Hospital, New Delhi. She trained as a fellow in dermatopathology at Boston University School of Medicine, Boston. She holds ICDP-UEMS certification in dermatopathology. Dr. Batrani is a member of Dermatopathology Society of India and also serves as member of editorial board of Indian Journal of Dermatopathology and Diagnostic Dermatology. Her principal interests include clinicopathological correlation of inflammatory dermatoses and immunofluorescence based diagnosis of bullous disorders.

 

David Cassarino (USA)

Dr. Cassarino performed his medical school and doctorate training at the University of Virginia, where he completed a combined M.D./Ph.D. (Neuroscience) program in 6 years.  His Anatomic Pathology residency training was done at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.  He went on to complete a Dermatopathology Fellowship at the University of California, Irvine, under Dr. Ronald Barr, and then worked as an attending physician at Stanford University for 3 years before moving to UCLA, where he was an Assistant and Associate Professor of pathology for 2 ½ years.  He joined the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Los Angeles as a Consultant Dermatopathologist in 2009.  He continues to teach and engage in clinical-pathological research, having published numerous papers and books/book chapters on cutaneous pathology, especially in the realm of cutaneous neoplasia.  He is also actively engaged in the teaching of medical students and Dermatology residents, and gives lectures on Dermatopathology at many national meetings.

 

Fraser Charlton (UK)

Dr Fraser G. Charlton has been a Consultant pathologist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne since 2002, with the probably unique specialty combination of Dermatopathology and Perinatal pathology; he also the lead for Infectious Diseases Pathology.

He graduated from Newcastle Medical School in 1991, with an intercalated BMedSci in Neurochemical Pathology. After his registration, he was awarded an MRC Clinical Training Fellowship to study for a PhD in Microbial Pathogenicity. Following completion of this in 1997, he trained in Cellular Pathology in Newcastle upon Tyne, developing his skin interest almost from the start. As well as being involved in teaching and service development, he was also Head of Department from 2012-2016, and is currently Deputy Head.

In his spare time, he is interested in writing and performing musical theatre and was ordained an Anglican Priest in 2015.

 

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Clay Cockerell (USA)

Dr. Clay Cockerell is a well known Dermatopathologist. He was the President of the American Association of Dermatology in 2004. For many years, Dr. Cockerell has overseen an educational program designed to train the next generation of Dermatopathologists. He receives five people in his office annually for the training. Dr. Cockerell also sees patients in the UT Southwestern General Dermatology clinic.

 

Shawn Cowper

Shawn Cowper (USA)

Dr. Cowper is an associate professor of dermatology and pathology at Yale University, where he has been a practicing dermatopathologist since 2001. He completed his fellowship training at the University of California, San Francisco, and is a native of Michigan. While at UCSF, Dr. Cowper was the lead author on the first papers describing nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. He was fortunate to be actively involved in the medical investigations leading to the discovery of the cause of NSF, and has witnessed and documented its demise as the Primary Investigator in charge of the NSF Registry at Yale. Dr. Cowper developed and directs the Yale Fibrosis Symposium (YFS). This two-day seminar endeavors to accelerate fibrosis research by promoting cross-disciplinary discussion and research collaboration. The eighth YFS is scheduled for April 2015 in New Haven, CT. He is also a founder and current Chairman of the Board of a medical non-profit, the Global Fibrosis Foundation, which provides grant awards supporting the eradication of organ-based and systemic fibrosing disorders. Since 2009, Cowper has conducted alopecia consultation sessions at the American Society of Dermatopathology. In 2012, he coauthored “An Atlas of Hair Pathology with Clinical Correlations” with Len Sperling and Eleanor Knopp. Dr. Cowper has had an interest in pathology informatics since creating the pathology education website, Pathmax.com, in 1997. He developed and co-chaired the ASDP Informatics Committee and is currently directing the Virtual Slide Library (VSL). The VSL aims to make a 10,000+ high-resolution zoomable microscope slide archive available to ASDP members over the web in the next few years. Dr. Cowper also serves on the Board of Directors of the ASDP as a member at large.

 

Lydia Essary (USA)

Dr. Essary is Staff Dermatopathologist at Dermatology & Skin Cancer Surgery Center, Dallas, Texas and Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas Texas, USA.

Dr. Essary continues to train dermatology residents at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and trained dermatopathology fellows and dermatology residents during her tenure at Cockerell and Assoc Dermpath Diagnostics laboratories . She greatly enjoys teaching the residents at the multiheader microscope and reviewing with them challenging clinico-pathological correlations. Her areas of interest include melanocytic neoplasms, genetic and molecular testing of melanocytic lesions and podiatric pathology.

Dr. Essary completed her Dermatopathology Fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.  She completed her residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee and served a Fellowship in Surgical Pathology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.   She is an avid lecturer and presents at local and international meetings.  Dr. Essary continues to serve in various committees of the American Society of Dermatopathology.

John Goodlad (UK)

John Goodlad is a Consultant Haematopathologist with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and is Lead for the Integrated Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Service.  He graduated MBChB from University of Aberdeen in 1986 and undertook post-graduate training at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, including rotations through St Johns Institute of Dermatology.  He was awarded his MD from the University of Aberdeen in 1994.  Prior to relocating to Glasgow Dr Goodlad worked as a consultant in Inverness, Edinburgh and at HMDS in Leeds.   His clinical expertise is in the diagnosis of lymphomas and bone marrow disorders with a particular interest in cutaneous lymphoma.   Research interests include the translation of scientific advances into the diagnosis of Haematological malignancy and the oncogenic properties of apoptotic tumour cells.  He is author of >80 peer reviewed publications and book chapters.  Dr Goodlad is strongly committed to education in haematopathology and has lectured on the diagnosis of lymphomas at numerous courses and international pathology meetings in North America, Europe, and Asia.  He runs the annual Edinburgh Haematopathology Tutorial, is currently an executive member of the European Association for Haematopathology (Meetings Secretary Elect) and  is the local organiser for the 2018 biennial meeting of the European Association for Haematopathology to be held in Edinburgh.

Wayne Grayson (SA)

 

Marc Haspeslagh (Belgium)

Dr. M. Haspeslagh is founder and director of the private dermatopathology lab ‘Dermpat’ in Ghent. He also works as a consultant dermatopathologist in the department of Dermatology of the University Hospital of Ghent.

Dr. Haspeslagh finished his education in general medicine, pathology and clinical genetics at the University Hospital of Louvain. After working for more than 20 years as a general surgical pathologist in the city hospital of Roeselare, he developed a specific interest in dermatopathology and obtained the International Dermatopathology Board certification in 2005. Since 2011, he works as a full time dermatopathologist in Dermpat.

In 2018, Dr Haspeslagh defended his PhD thesis on a new method of processing skin biopsies with ‘ex vivo dermoscopy and derm dotting’. His main interests are syndromic skin disease and pigment lesions of skin, with specific interest for the correlation between dermoscopy and morphology. His current research is focused on the dermoscopic-pathologic subclassification of flat nevi.

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Akhtar Husain (UK)

MBBS, DCP, FRCPath , UK
Dr Akhtar Husain is a consultant Dermatopathology and Lead Dermatopathologist in Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust. He received his MBBS degree from Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi in 1983. He had done his pathology and dermatopathology training in Dublin, Glasgow and Aberdeen UK. He is working as a consultant Dermatopathologist for over 16 years. He is also running a fellowship program in Dermatopathology.

Dr Akhtar Husain’s interests include pigmented melanocytic lesions and skin tumours. His research interest are mainly skin tumours, including genetic abnormalities associated with adnexal tumours. He is a speaker in Glasgow Dermatopathology course and presented in national and international meetings.

 

Meriem Emna Jones (Tunisia)

Dr. Meriem Jones is an assistant professor in dermatology in the Charles Nicolle Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia. She graduated from the Faculté de Médecine de Tunis in 2004. As a resident, she received training in both dermatology and dermatopathology in Tunis’s university hospitals and had 2 fellowships in dermatopathology at the Dermatologikum Hamburg with Dr Almut Boer. After her residency, she was awarded the Bourse de la Société Francaise de Dermatologie that enabled her to complete her training for nearly a year in the departments of dermatology and dermatopathology of Hôpital Mondor in Paris under the direction of Pr. Olivier Chosidow and Pr. Nicolas Ortonne. Since 2012, she is an assistant professor of dermatology in Hôpital Charles Nicolle of Tunis where she is in charge of the dermatopathology unit of the department and the Xeroderma Pigmentosum specialized consultation as well as general consultation and surgery. She is actually working on a PHD thesis on pigmented lesions in Xeroderma Pigmentosum patients.

Jacqueline Junkins Hopkins (USA)

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Nitin Khirwadkar (UK)

 

Athanassios Kolivras (Brussels)

Dr. Kolivras is a Professor of Dermatology at the ‘Université Libre de Bruxelles’ and the clinical director of the department of Dermatology at ‘Saint-Pierre’ teaching hospital in Brussels, Belgium.

Dr. Kolivras received his Medical Degree from the ‘Université de Liège’ in Belgium and completed his residency in Dermatology at the ‘Université Libre de Bruxelles’. He did his Fellowship training in Dermatopathology with Dr. James Patterson and Dr. Mark Wick at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA. He has obtained his PhD degree following his thesis entitled ‘Immunohistochemistry in the histopathological evaluation of primary scalp alopecia’. He is currently Professor of Dermatology in stomatology and dental sciences at the ‘Université Libre de Bruxelles’. Special interests include Dermatology in Internal Medicine, Pediatric Dermatology, Stomatology and the histopathological evaluation of alopecia. He is devoted to the clinical-pathological correlation of the inflammatory dermatoses and of the dermatoscopic examination of pigmented cutaneous lesions. His academic practice is focused on the teaching of the clinical aspects of Dermatopathology.

 

Robert Phelps (USA)

Dr. Robert Phelps is Professor of Dermatology and Pathology and Director of the Dermatopathology Service at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Phelps is extensively involved in the teaching of medical students, residents, fellows and faculty and he has been with Mount Sinai since 1986. His research interests include experimental models of skin disease, cutaneous oncology, and environmental skin disease. Dr. Phelps is an avid reader and also enjoys outdoor activities.

Thuy Phung (Vietnam)

Thuy Phung, MD, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Pathology at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.  She is a board-certified dermatopathologist and a physician scientist.  Dr. Phung specializes in skin pathology and is a staff dermatopathologist at Texas Children’s Hospital.  She directs a cancer research laboratory that studies molecular causes driving cancer growth and metastasis, and the biology of vascular anomalies.  Her publications include topics in skin pathology and molecular pathogenesis of vascular tumors and tumor angiogenesis. She has recently published a textbook Pediatric Dermatopathology.

Dr. Phung has a strong interest in humanitarian medical work in Vietnam, and worked to establish the Vietnam Vascular Anomalies Center in Ho Chi Minh City in 2009.  She returns to the Center each year to participate in physician training and treatment of children with vascular birthmarks.  Her global health work also includes helping pathologists to improve dermatopathology practice in Vietnam.

Melissa Pulitzer (USA)

Dr. Pulitzer earned her medical degree at MCP-Hahnemann School of Medicine in Philadelphia, followed by medical internship at Jefferson Medical College, pathology residency at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and dermatopathology fellowship at New York University. She was Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Pathology at New York University before joining the faculty in the department of Pathology of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2008 where she is now  Associate Attending dermatopathologist jointly appointed at Weill-Cornell Medical Center Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Pulitzer’s expertise lies in the diagnosis and pathologic characterization of skin cancer and cancer-related inflammatory skin disease, in particular, regarding cutaneous lymphoma and hematolymphoid disease.  She has additional expertise in Merkel cell carcinoma, graft-versus host disease, and melanoma. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, and numerous book chapters and reviews on cutaneous lymphomas, myeloid neoplasms, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers.  She is a well-regarded teacher and has given multiple CME courses at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, American Society of Dermatopathology, International Society of Dermatopathology and the American Academy of Dermatology, and has mentored numerous Dermatopathology fellows, residents and students in clinical practice and translational research.

Joaninha Costa Rosa

Dr Joaninha Costa Rosa is a senior consultant histopathologist working at the  Instituto Português de Oncologia of Lisbon since she graduated from Nova Medical School/ Faculdade de Ciências Médicas in 1985. Her training was carried out in the same place where she still works. She is guest lecturer of Nova Medical School/ FCM  and author or co-author of 22 scientific papers. She acquired expertise in Dermatopathology and has the subspeciality in dermatopathology, which is recognized by the Colleges of Pathology and Dermatology. She is actually engaged in the teaching of junior pathologists and dermatologists in the area. She leads the dermatopathology area in the Department and is engaged in the cutaneous tumours multidisciplinary decision team of the Instituto Português de Oncologia.

 

Ed Rytina BSc MB BS PhD FRCPath

Ed Rytina is a consultant histopathologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. He qualified in medicine at Guy’s Hospital in London and trained in clinical pathology, then histopathology, at Guy’s, the Norfolk and Norwich hospital and Addenbrooke’s.
His PhD was as a research fellow in cell biology at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now CRUK) and University College, London, in the Keratinocyte Laboratory with Dr. Fiona Watt, investigating keratinocyte stem cell behaviour and the epidermal proliferative unit.
Initially a consultant general histopathologist in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, he is now lead consultant for dermatopathology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital where there is a local and regional referral practice, with particular interest in inflammatory dermatoses and melanoma. The department has been reporting sentinel lymph node biopsies for over 16 years and for melanoma since 2010.

 

Gerald Saldanha (UK)

I am a histopathologist and my professional goal is to combine clinical and research skills to develop prognostic biomarkers to improve patient care. I focus on three areas.  i) Tissue biomarkers:  to maximise information that can be gleaned from routinely processed diagnostic tissue by investigating biomarkers for malignant melanoma such as DNA and microRNA. More recently, I have investigated how routinely reported prognostic morphological, such as Breslow thickness and tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes, can be improved. ii) Circulating tumour DNA: I am investigating circulating free DNA that is released by tumour cells into the blood. I am the principal investigator on  a £285K CRUK grant that focuses on finding driver mutations in tissues and then tracks them in serial blood samples to monitor therapeutic response and resistance. iii) Research infrastructure: I have a created a database of all of the melanomas diagnosed in Leicester since 2004 to the present time comprising approx. 3000 cases. For over a thousand, I have collected clinico-pathological features and follow up data. To the best of my knowledge, this is the biggest comprehensively annotated single centre database of primary melanoma in the UK.

 

Bruce Smoller (USA)

Dr. Smoller began his career in pathology as a resident in anatomic and clinical pathology at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital.  From there, he did a dermatopathology fellowship at Cornell

Medical School/ New York Hospital under the tutelage of Dr. Scott McNutt. He remained on faculty at Cornell for several years before relocating to Stanford University in 1990 to assume the position as Director of Dermatopathology and rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Pathology and Dermatology.  In 1997, he relocated to the University of Arkansas where he became Chair of the Department of Pathology, in addition to his role as the Director of Dermatopathology.  He remained there until 2011 when he was appointed to the position of Executive Vice President of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology.    He spent nearly three years in that position before accepting the position as Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Services and Professor of Dermatology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he has been since July 2014.

Dr. Smoller has published more than 255 original articles, 39 book chapters and 14 textbooks of dermatopathology.  He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cutaneous Pathology and as the President of the American Society of Dermatopathology.  He has been invited as a guest speaker in 23 countries around the world. He is proudest of the Nickel Award he received from the American Society of Dermatopathology in recognition of lifetime excellence in teaching.

 

Uma Sundram (USA)

Dr. Uma Sundram received her MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed her residency in Anatomic Pathology at Stanford University, including a surgical pathology fellowship with Drs. Richard Kempson and Ronald Dorfman.  She also completed her dermatopathology fellowship at Stanford University with the late Dr. Sabine Kohler. After twelve years at Stanford as an assistant professor of Pathology and Dermatology, Dr. Sundram elected to return home to southeast Michigan. She is currently a staff dermatopathologist at William Beaumont Hospital-Royal Oak and assistant professor of Pathology at William Beaumont Oakland University School of Medicine.  She is board certified in Anatomic Pathology (American Board of Pathology) and Dermatopathology (American Boards of Pathology and Dermatology). Her research interests include cutaneous lymphoma, interobserver analysis of difficult melanocytic lesions, and the peer review process in pathology.

 

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Michael Tetzlaff (USA)

 

 

Curtis Thompson (USA)

Dr. Thompson is an expert in nail and hair loss pathology, with active research projects in both areas. In hair loss, Dr. Thompson collaborates closely with Dr. Athanassios Kolivras in Belgium in research to identify molecular tools (esp. immunohistochemistry) which aid in diagnostic impasses. Dr. Thompson is also active in basic science research in early melanoma, especially mechanisms of intraepidcermal melanocyte movement and proliferation, at the new Knight Cancer Center at Oregon Health and Sciences University.

 

Claudia Vidal (USA)

Dr. Claudia I. Vidal is originally from El Paso, Texas. She achieved her M.D., Ph.D. from the University of Texas Medical School – Houston and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She then completed a clinical internship in obstetrics and gynecology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania followed by residency in anatomic pathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Fellowship in dermatopathology was accomplished at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2009. She joined the Department of Dermatology at Saint Louis University in 2009. She is currently an Associate Professor in Dermatology and Pathology where she serves as serve as Director of the Histology Laboratory. She also teaches and mentors trainees from undergraduate to graduate as is the Associate Director for the Dermatopathology Fellowship Program at Saint Louis University.

 

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