SID Resident and Post Doc Retreat
Grantee: Rebecca Minnillo, Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID)
Amount: EUR 25,000
Grant category: Research Networking
Year: 2025
Geography: USA
The Resident and Post Doc Retreat is a conference hosted by the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) each year since 2001. The program format provides a protected space in which residents can interact with senior faculty and established investigators for the purpose of fostering attendees’ interest in academic research careers. The program is a combination of formal lectures and presentations, informal discussions, brainstorming sessions and social activities. The retreat is held at the time of the SID annual meeting, which allows attendees to establish connections with each other, and to other meeting attendees. These social networks foster collegiality, collaborations, and appreciation for the creative, multidisciplinary nature of science and other productive interactions.
Aplasia cutis pathogenesis provides key insights into skin and skin appendage biology
Grantee: Alexander Marneros, Associate Professor of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, United States
Amount: DKK 3,998,854
Grant category: Research Grants in open competition
Year: 2025
Geography: USA
To elucidate novel mechanisms that orchestrate skin formation we have focused on a genetic skin disease that manifests with scalp skin wounds at birth, aplasia cutis congenita (ACC). We found that the genes KCTD1 and KCTD15 are mutated in patients with ACC. These genes form a complex that inhibits the activity of AP-2 transcription factors. Inactivation of these genes in neural crest cells (NCCs), from which the mesenchymal cells of the midline cranial sutures are derived, results in ACC. Our data provide evidence that keratinocyte growth factors are secreted by these mesenchymal cells to promote the formation of the overlying epidermis. A key open question is now to understand the precise pathomechanisms that are downstream of this KCTD1/KCTD15 – AP-2 signaling axis, which we will explore in this proposal. These experiments are expected to provide exciting new insights into how skin formation is controlled, which likely has important clinical relevance for multiple skin diseases.
Uncovering the role of glutamine metabolism in host defense against bacterial skin infections
Grantee: Nathan Archer, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, United States
Amount: DKK 3,957,833
Grant category: Research Grants in open competition
Year: 2025
Geography: USA
Staphylococcus aureus is the primary cause of skin infections and is a serious public health threat due to the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant strains as well as the failure of all vaccine clinical trials to date. Thus, there is an unmet need for new therapeutic strategies as alternatives to antibiotics and vaccines. Our proposal aims to solve this problem by interrogating how our immune cells orchestrate protective responses against S. aureus infections. Specifically, we discovered that the amino acid, glutamine, is critical for host defense against S. aureus in the skin. We will use advanced “omics” approaches to understand how glutamine promotes host defense in specific immune cells in the skin using preclinical infection models as well as clinically infected skin. The goal of this study is to identify previously unrecognized immune pathways that can be targeted to augment host immunity against antimicrobial-resistant S. aureus and potentially other skin pathogens.
Dissecting the Role of Immunometabolism in CD4+ T Cell Skin Residency
Grantee: Tiffany Scharschmidt, Professor & Vice Chair of Research, The Regents of The University of California San Francisco, United States
Amount: DKK 3,416,251
Grant category: Research Grants in open competition
Year: 2025
Geography: USA
We seek to understand how CD4+ T cells adapt to and survive in the skin. These cells are crucial for maintaining skin health but also drive diseases like atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. Despite this, we have much still to learn about the biology of CD4+ T cells residing in skin. To fill this gap, our team will use advanced single-cell techniques to study the metabolism of CD4+ T cells in both mouse and human skin. Preliminary data suggest these cells rely on glycolysis, and we aim to explore this further and identify other important metabolic pathways. In the first part of our study, we will use innovative mouse models and CRISPR-Cas9 technology to pinpoint key metabolic needs and regulators. In the second part, we will extend our findings to human skin, examining CD4+ T cells in both healthy and diseased states. Our goal is to uncover how metabolism influences skin immune function, which could lead to new treatments for chronic inflammatory skin diseases.