Dermatology: Resident Reflections - International Investigative Dermatology (IID) Meeting

The 2018 International Investigative Dermatology conference was an exciting meeting with strong representation from the University of Toronto. Cathryn Sibbald, PGY5, presented her work on the autoimmune diseases associated with vitiligo. She stressed the importance of checking vitamin B12 levels in this population because pernicious anemia is an important and often missed disease associated with vitiligo. Tan Rajakulendran, PGY3, was selected as a rising star in academic dermatology and he attended the trainee retreat to hone his research career. His remarkable output in the field of molecular signaling has had profound impacts on melanoma biology and therapeutics. I personally had the opportunity to give a talk on pemphigus vulgaris research that I completed with Daniel Wong, PGY4, and Dr. Neil Shear to the medical dermatology society sub-meeting.

In addition to the contributions from the University of Toronto, the conference was brimming with interesting research from all over world. Krutmann from Dusseldorf discussed the association between particulate matter levels from traffic pollution and increased numbers of lentigines. Guttman-Yassky's group from Mount Sinai New York demonstrated that fezakinumab, an IL-22 blocker, reduced dermatitis severity in a subset of individuals with atopic dermatitis, who had high levels of IL-22. Gallo's group from University of California San Diego showed that a cream containing anti-microbial proteases from coagulase negative staphylococcus reduces staphylococcus aureus levels and decreases EASI scores in people with eczema when compared to a vehicle control cream. A large number of posters focused on the genetics of cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Although mycosis fungoides is rich in non-synonymous mutations, multiple groups, including Gniadecki from Albert, stressed the importance of genes involved in histone acetylation, such as KMT2D. This dovetails well with the effectiveness of histone deacetylase inhibitors in treating cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Overall, the conference was an enriching experience and I look forward to the next annual meeting of the Society for Investigative Dermatology in Chicago 2019.