NOVEL SYSTEMIC TREATMENTS FOR ATOPIC DERMATITIS AND CLINICAL TRIAL DESIGN

At EADV Virtual Congress 2020 | October 2020 

View the IEC virtual symposium to discuss novel systemic treatments for atopic dermatitis and clinical trial design.  

View On-Demand Webcast

PROGRAM CHAIRS

Robert Bissonnette, MD, Montreal, QC, Canada
Diamant Thaci, MD, Lubeck, Germany
Thomas Bieber, MD, Bonn, Germany

AGENDA

Welcome and Introduction
Emma Guttman, MD, IEC President, New York, NY, USA

Optimizing Clinical Trial Design for AD drug development
Robert Bissonnette, MD, IEC President Elect, Montreal, QC, Canada

Novel Systemic Treatments in Pediatrics and Placebo Responses in Systemic Trials
Michael Cork, MD, Sheffield, UK

Monoclonal antibodies targeting Th2 receptors and cytokines (e.g. IL4R, IL-13 and IL-31)
Thomas Bieber, MD, Bonn, Germany

Monoclonal antibodies targeting epithelial-derived protein (e.g. IL-17C, IL-33 and TSLP)
Diamant Thaci, MD, Lubeck, Germany

Monoclonal antibodies with other targets (e.g. OX40, IL-22 and IL-23) and biomarkers of disease response
Emma Guttman, MD, New York, NY, USA

Systemic JAK inhibitors
Eric Simpson, MD, Portland, OR, USA

Topical JAK inhibitors
Jonathan Silverberg, MD, Washington DC, USA

Other systemic treatments
Andreas Wollenberg, MD, Munich, Germany

SPEAKERS

Emma Guttman, MD PhD 
Emma Guttman, MD PhD, is the Sol and Clara Kest professor of dermatology, vice chair for research at the Department of Dermatology, and director of both the Center for Excellence in Eczema and the Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York.

Guttman’s major focus is atopic dermatitis (AD). She has:

• made paradigm-shifting discoveries on the immunologic basis of AD in humans, enriching the understanding of its pathophysiology and opening the door to new therapeutics 
• developed comprehensive molecular maps of AD, defining skin differentiation and immune-circuits characterizing this disease
• established the reversibility of the AD phenotype 
• defined a series of biomarkers that are now accelerating testing of novel pathway-specific drugs for AD.

She earned her doctor of medicine degree from Sackler in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and a doctor of philosophy degree from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. After receiving her board certification in dermatology in Israel, Guttman moved to the United States to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at The Rockefeller University in New York, NY, and a second dermatology residency at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, NY.

In addition to serving as president of the International Eczema Council (IEC), Guttman was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). Among other honors, she received the AAD Young Investigator Award in 2011.

Robert Bissonnette, MD FRCPC
Board certified in dermatology, Dr. Bissonnette is the president of Innovaderm Research—a contract research organization (CRO) specializing in the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials in various areas of dermatology—in Montreal, QC, Canada. He has published more than 150 articles and book chapters and gives lectures on various aspects of dermatology at national and international meetings.

Dr. Bissonnette earned his medical degree from the University of Montreal, underwent residency training in dermatology at the University of Montreal, and completed his basic and clinical research training at McGill University and the University of British Columbia. He was an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Montreal until 2004.

Michael J. Cork, BSc, MB, PhD, FRCP

Professor Michael J. Cork is head of Sheffield Dermatology Research; in the Dept. of Infection, Immunity & Cardiovascular Disease; Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health; at The University of Sheffield, UK. He is a Consultant Dermatologist to Sheffield Children’s Hospital (SCH) NHS Trust and to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (STH) NHS Trust.

He specialises in treating children and adults with the most severe atopic dermatitis and sees patients from anywhere in the UK. At Sheffield Children’s Hospital he leads an integrated atopic dermatitis – allergy – psychiatry service, designed to manage the most complex patients. He leads clinical trials of new treatments for atopic dermatitis at the Clinical Research Facilities at SCH for children and at STH for adults. He is Chief Investigator, in the UK, for many of the trials for new biologics, small molecules and topicals for atopic dermatitis.

With Dr. Simon Danby, they have created a dedicated clinical research facility for skin barrier, biomarker research. Their Skin Barrier Team have developed a research facility that has developed a unique combination of techniques to assess how topical wash products, emollients and topical/systemic pharmaceutical agents affect the integrity of the skin barrier and inflammation in normal and AD skin. These biomarkers are used to assess the safety and efficacy of treatments for atopic dermatitis. These atopic dermatitis biomarkers are also being used in experimental medicine clinical trials to stratify patients according to clinical response and safety parameters. This information can be used to determine how long a treatment should be used for, the optimum dose, the effect on some comorbidities and inform health economic evaluations

Our research group also has a special interest in the prevention of atopic dermatitis. This involves both mechanistic studies and large collaborative clinical trials. We investigate how the environment of a baby interacts with their skin to induce the development of atopic dermatitis. A major focus is on how topical wash products, emollients, oils, and water itself, affect the skin barrier and how this leads to the development of atopic dermatitis. This then informs the design of combinations of topical products that will have the optimum effect on the development and maintenance of the skin barrier.

Thomas Bieber, MD PhD MDRA
Thomas Bieber, MD PhD MDRA, is the chair and director of the University of Bonn’s Department of Dermatology, director and speaker of the Christine Kühne–Center for Allergy Research and Education, and cofounder of the Center of Translational Medicine (CTM), a joint research program between the medical faculty of the University of Bonn’s medical faculty and the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM).

In addition to clinical dermatology and allergy, Bieber’s scientific focus is in the ontogeny and immunobiology of dendritic cells, their role in atopic dermatitis, in tolerance mechanisms, and in the control of the cutaneous microbiome by the innate immunity.

Bieber studied medicine and received his PhD in biology at Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg. He also holds a master’s degree in drug regulatory affairs (MDRA). He has trained in dermatology, allergy, dermatopathology, and occupational dermatology at the departments of Strasbourg and in Munich, Germany.

Diamant Thaçi, MD PhD
Board certified in dermatology and venereology, Dr. Thaçi is a director and full university professor at the Comprehensive Center for Inflammation Medicine, University of Lübeck in Lübeck, Germany, a role he has held since 2013. He also is chair of the inflammatory board at University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein in Lübeck. He is a member of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) steering committee, International Psoriasis Council (IPC), the IEC, and Skin Inflammation & Psoriasis International Network (SPIN).

Dr Thaçi’s research has included immunology and all stages of clinical drug development, with a focus on chronic inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and hidradenitis suppurativa. A recipient of the Theodor-Stern Foundation Award for excellence in clinical research, he has been involved in numerous investigator-driven trials and acted as main investigator on large numbers of national and international multicenter trials.
He has published numerous articles, including in the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet; held positions as editor, co-editor, and editorial board member for several scientific journals; and serves as a scientific reviewer for dermatological and general medicine journals. He also lectures on dermatology and related topics.

Dr. Thaçi earned his medical degree in 1989 from the University of Pristina in Pristina, Kosovo. He completed his residency in the Department of Dermatology and Venerology at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. There, he was a senior consulting specialist in dermatology, director of clinical research, and head of the photodermatology division from 1997 to 2011. In 2011, he was appointed associate professor of dermatology, venereology, and allergology at Goethe University.

Eric Simpson, MD MCR
Eric Simpson heads the Department of Dermatology’s Clinical Studies Unit at Oregon Health & Sciences University. He has a special interest in chronic inflammatory skin diseases. He is funded by the National Institutes of Health and industry partners to study new approaches to skin disease treatment and prevention. Dr. Simpson regularly instructs residents and medical students in dermatology.

He has published more than 70 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. He is co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Eczema Association and is on the executive committee of the Harmonizing Outcome Measures in Eczema (HOME), which seeks to improve the quality of eczema research.

Jonathan Silverberg, MD PhD MPH
An associate professor of dermatology, Jonathan Silverberg is the director of clinical research and contact dermatitis at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC.

His area of clinical subspecialty is inflammatory skin disease, particularly atopic and contact dermatitis. He has extensive experience in the advanced management of atopic dermatitis, hand eczema, chronic itch, psoriasis, hidradenitis and many other chronic inflammatory skin disorders. He also is a national expert in allergy patch testing, phototesting, and photopatch testing.

Dr. Silverberg’s publications include more than 600 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, and book chapters. He also is the author of Clinical Management of Atopic Dermatitis (2018).

He has been a local, national, and international principal investigator for numerous clinical trials for novel treatments in atopic dermatitis and other inflammatory disorders. He is the chair of the annual Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis global multidisciplinary conference and an associate editor for the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, British Journal of Dermatology, and Current Dermatology Reports.

Dr. Silverberg completed his undergraduate degree, medical school training, doctorate in neuroimmunology, master of public health degree in biostatistics and epidemiology, and internship in internal medicine at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. He completed his residency training in dermatology at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center and Beth Israel Medical Centers in New York, NY, and served as chief resident during his final year.

 Andreas Wollenberg, MD, DrMed, DrHC