Keynote & Invited Speakers

Siew Eng CHOON, MBBS, FRCP

Senior Consultant Dermatologist, Clinical Associate Professor
Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru, School of Medicine and Health Services, Monash
University Malaysia
Johor, Malaysia

Siew Eng Choon is a senior consultant dermatologist at Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Johor Bahru, Malaysia and an Associate Professor at Clinical School Johor Bahru, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University, Malaysia. She is a foundation member of the Asian Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, an active member of the Malaysian Society of Dermatology, and a member of the Malaysian Medical Association. Dr. Choon is a Malaysian Skin Foundation trustee and chairs the research committee. She is a key project team leader for the Core Outcome Measures for Pustular Psoriasis and Associated Systemic Symptoms (COMPPASS) and a member of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences – Severe Cutaneous Adverse Reactions of Drugs (CIOMS-SCAR) expert working group. She sits on the editorial committee for the publication of the CIOMS-SCAR consensus guidelines and is currently an associate editor of Experimental Dermatology. Her research interests include chronic inflammatory skin diseases, namely atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, particularly generalised pustular psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, and cutaneous adverse drug reactions. Dr. Choon is a Board Member of the International Psoriasis Council (IPC) and chairs the Pustular psoriasis working group. She is an advisor of the Psoriasis Association of Johor.

Matt Brown is a clinician-scientist who trained initially in medicine and rheumatology in Sydney, Australia before completing a Doctorate of Medicine based at University of Oxford, focusing on genetics of ankylosing spondylitis. He was appointed Professor of Musculoskeletal Sciences at University of Oxford in 2004. In 2005 Matt returned to Australia, firstly to University of Queensland, and since 2016, at Queensland University of Technology, where he was Professor and Director of Genomics. In 2013 he was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Sciences in recognition for his achievements in genetics research. In 2019 he moved to King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Trust to direct their NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, and in 2021 moved to the position of Chief Scientific Officer of Genomics England. He continues to work in genetics of human diseases, with a particular focus on common and rare bone and joint diseases, and in cancer genomics and personalized medicine. He continues to practice rheumatology, with a particular focus on spondyloarthritis.

Bruce Strober, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Strober earned both his medical and his doctorate degrees from Columbia University in New York, New York. He subsequently completed his residency in dermatology in the Department of Dermatology, New York University School of Medicine in New York, New York. He is board certified by the American Board of Dermatology and a Fellow in the American Academy of Dermatology.

Dr. Strober is Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine. He is currently the

Editor in Chief of the Journal of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis

Vice President and President-elect on the Board of the International Psoriasis Council

Scientific Co-Director of the CorEvitas Psoriasis Registry

His primary clinical focus is the treatment of difficult-to-treat inflammatory diseases of the skin, such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and hidradenitis suppurativa.

Michel Gilliet, M.D., is a Head of the Dermatology Department at the University Hospital CHUV in Lausanne, Switzerland. He completed his dermatology training at the University of Zurich and received research training in immunology at the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. In 2004, Dr. Gilliet was recruited by MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where he held clinical appointments in Dermatology, as well as basic and translational science appointments in Melanoma Oncology and Immunology.
In 2010, Dr. Gilliet returned to Switzerland as a Full Professor and Head of the Dermatology Department in Lausanne. His research primarily focuses on immune responses in inflammatory skin diseases. His laboratory has notably uncovered mechanisms by which dendritic cells initiate and sustain skin inflammation by sensing DNA in complex with antimicrobial peptides. These groundbreaking studies have led to a paradigm shift in understanding how inflammation is regulated in injured skin and in diseases such as psoriasis and lupus erythematosus. More recently, his lab has expanded its research to include the application of molecular omics technologies in clinical dermatology practice, providing a new framework for diagnosing and treating skin diseases.
Dr. Gilliet’s research has led to over 140 publications and garnered 30,000 citations, with his work regularly featured in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, and Nature Communications.
Dr. Gilliet has served as President of the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR) and is currently President of the Skin Science Foundation. He also serves on the Board of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV), where he chairs the Scientific Program. In recognition of his contributions to medical research, he received the Cloetta Prize, Switzerland’s most prestigious medical research award, in 2016. In 2023, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in Germany.

Luis Puig is Director of the Department of Dermatology, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (HSCSP) and Professor of Dermatology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Medical School, Barcelona, Spain.

In the last 20 years Dr Puig has focused on clinical research in the treatment of psoriasis with biological agents, an area in which he is considered a key opinion leader both nationally and internationally, having taught at numerous national and international conferences, workshops, and seminars. The results of his research have been published in numerous articles (h-index = 75; i10 index = 408) and book chapters. He has participated in numerous clinical trials on psoriasis, in most cases acting as principal investigator.

Dr Puig is member of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, founding member of several of its working groups, and past coordinator of the Spanish Psoriasis Group. He is also an aggregate member of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and its GEAPSO Group for Research in Psoriatic Arthritis, and of several international societies, including the EADV, AAD, CILAD, ESDR, ASDP, ISDP, and GRAPPA.

He is or has been Board Member of the EADV (2013-2019), Co-chair of the Psoriasis Task Force of the EADV (2018-), scientific advisor to the Psoriasis International Network, President of the Psoriasis International Network and the Fondation René Touraine Scientific Board Executive Committee (2016-2020), Vicepresident of the Administration Council of the Fondation René Touraine (2018-2020), Member of the European Dermatology Forum (2017-), Councilor of the International Psoriasis Council (2012-), Board Member of the International Psoriasis Council (2018-), Member of the Education and Steering Committees (2020-2023) of GRAPPA, and Board Member at Large (Derm), GRAPPA (2024-)

James Galloway is a Professor of Rheumatology and Honorary Consultant at King’s College London, where he also serves as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Rheumatic Diseases. He obtained his MBChB from the University of Bristol and completed his MSc in Clinical Rheumatology and PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Manchester.

Prof. Galloway specialises in targeted therapies for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. He leads the analytics for the National Early Arthritis Audit Programme and co-chairs a European task force on infection risk mitigation in rheumatic disease.

He is the Co-Investigator for the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register for Rheumatoid Arthritis and has led numerous clinical trials, including studies on sarcoidosis and inflammatory arthritis. His research team includes PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and clinical trial fellows, contributing to a wide array of observational and interventional studies.

In addition to his research, Prof. Galloway is heavily involved in teaching and education. He is the Programme Director for the PG Cert in Applied Research Methods and chairs the MBBS examination board at King’s College London. He also provides outpatient care for inflammatory arthritis and subspecialty clinics in sarcoidosis at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Prof. El-Sayed is Professor of Dermatology and Venereology at Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

She is a board member of the International psoriasis council.

She qualified in medicine in Cairo with honors and subsequently obtained two post-graduate degrees: MSc and MD. Her training has mostly been at her home University but does include a period of research in Glasgow, Scotland for two years. She has served as the administrative director of the department since 2000 and was department head from 2017 to 2018. She also runs a weekly psoriasis clinic in the university hospital

Prof. El-Sayed is the Head of the Egyptian Board of Dermatology and involved in the ministry of health combined committee for Biologic therapy for psoriasis patients together with her fellow rheumatologists. She has lectured widely at international meetings. She is a member of multiple national and international dermatology societies and has organized many congresses. She is very committed to improving the outcomes for patients with psoriasis in Egypt and has on numerous occasions lobbied the government to improve access to healthcare and medicine.

She has several national and international publications and is involved in several clinical trials.

Justin Ko is a Clinical Professor and Chief of Medical Dermatology at Stanford where he spearheads the dermatology department’s clinical enterprise including efforts around digital health, quality and value-based care. He also holds a number of health system roles within Stanford Medicine including as an Associate Chief Quality Officer and physician leader of Patient Experience. He is a clinical expert in skin cancer and melanoma and alopecia areata, and works actively in the areas of care delivery innovation and augmented intelligence.

Georg Schett

Professor and Head of Department of Medicine 3
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

Professor Schett’s interests include basic, translational and clinical research on molecular and cellular pathogenesis of rheumatic and autoimmune diseases. In 2008, he initiated in collaboration with colleagues the priority program IMMUNOBONE, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which aims to elucidate the interactions between the skeletal and the immune systems.

Since 2015, Prof. Schett has led the DFG CRC1181 “Checkpoints for Resolution of Inflammation” in Erlangen. Additionally, he is spokesperson of the project METARTHROS, which investigates the impact of the metabolism on arthritis. In 2019, he received funding for the ERC-Synergy grant “4D+ nanoSCOPE Advancing osteoporosis medicine by observing bone microstructure and remodelling using a four-dimensional nanoscope” of which he is spokesperson.

In 2021, Prof. Schett was appointed Vice President Research of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and also became a Leopoldina member of the National Academy of Sciences of Germany.

Professor Schett‘s scientific work has been honored with several awards, including the Carol-Nachman Prize from Wiesbaden and the 2023 “Funding Prize in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme” awarded by the DFG. He has published over 1000 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Mark Lebwohl is Dean for Clinical Therapeutics and Chairman Emeritus of the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is a past President of the American Academy of Dermatology and Chairman Emeritus of the Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation. He has published over 700 peer-reviewed articles and is editor of Treatment of Skin Disease which is now in its 6th edition and is published in English, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.  He is the founding editor of Psoriasis Forum and of the Journal of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis. He is editor of the Dermatology Section of Scientific American Medicine, and co-Editor-in-Chief of Skin, the Journal of Cutaneous Medicine.

Jo Lambert is a senior full professor in dermatology and venereology, and chairing the Department of Dermatology at Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. She is current chair of the EADV Task Force Psoriasis, EADV Scientific Programme Committee member and Councilor at the International Psoriasis Council. In the 2010s she served as associate editor and editorial assistant for the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, section psoriasis and pigmentation, and is now associate Editor of J European Academy Dermatology Venerology.

She specialises in the fields of immune dermatoses and pigment cell research. Her research interests lie in the improvement of care in immune-mediated inflammatory skin disorders : from advanced models of topical drug delivery to personalised dosing of biologicals. She founded the DermPlus approach, an example of a value-based integrated practice unit for immune-mediated chronic skin diseases. She has 280 publications, 5842 sum of times cited, and an H-index of 43.

Lone Skov is a Professor and Senior Physician in the Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen. Since 2009, Professor Skov has been a Professor of Dermatology and Venerology at the University of Copenhagen. Her current clinical and research activities focus on inflammatory skin diseases, especially psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. Professor Skov has been involved in developing and implementing unique Danish registers and has played a vital role in the steering group that initiated one of the first registers for using biological treatments in clinical practice, DERMBIO. She is mainly doing translational research; her research has focused on psoriasis’s epidemiology, immunology, and clinical aspects, including projects investigating co-morbidity in psoriasis. Since 2013, she has been a Coordinating Professor for one of the largest hospitals in the Copenhagen area. She is a member of several national and international scientific societies, including the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) and the Skin Inflammation & Psoriasis International Network (SPIN). She is the past president of the Danish Society of Dermato-Venerology. Internationally, she is a Board Member of the International Psoriasis Council (IPC).