In its 53-year history, the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR) has named 66 honorary members.
Next month in Lisbon at its annual meeting the society will recognize its three newest honorary members, among them Nicole Ward, PhD, professor and vice chair for Basic Research in the Department of Dermatology and professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
According to the ESDR, honorary membership is the society’s highest honor, given to individuals who have particularly distinguished themselves in dermatological research or have made significant contributions to the society.
Ward joined VUMC in 2022, coming from Case Western Reserve University. Her research is focused on the cellular and molecular pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory skin diseases like psoriasis.
Her group was first to show that chronic skin-initiated inflammation can drive the development of cardiovascular disease, and that suppressing it reverses disease, and was first to show that cutaneous sensory nerve interactions with dendritic cells are critical for eliciting and sustaining psoriasis pathogenesis (thus explaining the mechanisms underlying psoriasis disease remission following skin denervation).
Among other honors, Ward in 2016 became the first non-MD, first woman, and youngest person to be awarded the Eugene M. Farber Lecture by the Society for Investigative Dermatology.
The ESDR’s other two new honorary members are Chris Griffiths, OBE, MD, current president of the ESDR and professor and director of the Center for Dermatology Research at the University of Manchester, and Kenji Kabashima, MD, PhD, professor of the Department of Dermatology at Kyoto University.
