LaRoche-Posay Announces Research Grant Recipients

The winners of the La Roche-Posay North American Foundation 7^th Annual Research Awards are Marie S. Tuttle, MD of Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Sarina B. Elmariah, MD, PhD from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. The annual awards were created to support the work of outstanding candidates with promising research projects in the fields of clinical, biological and pharmacological dermatology. Each winner received a $10,000 research grant.
Dr. Tuttle was awarded for her project, “Longitudinal Microbiome Shifts May Affect Innate Immune Responses in Delayed Wound Healing.” Dr. Elmariah was awarded for her project, “The Role of Proteases and Neurogenic Inflammation in the Pathogenesis of Atopic Dermatitis.”
“This research award from La Roche-Posay will augment our efforts to better understand the role of microbial colonization in triggering inflammation and delayed healing in chronic wounds,” said Dr. Tuttle. “Research on chronic wounds often focuses on snapshots of patients due to the increase in resources required to follow patients over the course of healing. Therefore, the support from La Roche-Posay is important in helping us meet our goals of studying all of our patients longitudinally, which we believe will lead to more meaningful findings.”
“I am sincerely grateful for the support of the La Roche-Posay North American Foundation Research Award,” said Dr. Elmariah. “With this support, I hope to help elucidate new mechanisms underlying the development of atopic dermatitis, a common and frequently debilitating skin disease. Specifically, my work will address whether preventing neural activation during early stages of skin inflammation will reduce the severity and potentially prevent the spread and/or recurrence of atopic disease.”
Each research abstract submitted was evaluated by members of the La Roche-Posay North American Scientific Committee comprised of academic leaders including: Anthony Benedetto, DO (University of Pennsylvania), Daniel Schachter, MD (University of Toronto), Julie Powell, MD (University of Montreal), Jean Bolognia, MD (Yale University), Ken Tomecki, MD (Cleveland Clinic), and Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD (University of Washington).
The grants were awarded during the 2012 American Academy of Dermatology 70^th annual meeting in San Diego.
The deadline for abstracts for the 2013 awards is December 1, 2012. Proposals should include a one page abstract, research plan and budget totaling no more than 10 pages, a curriculum vitae from each applicant, and a letter of support from a mentor or chief of dermatology. Research by dermatology residents, fellows and new dermatologists in practice for up to two years is welcome. Please contact Gene Colon at [email protected] for more information.