In Defense of Skin: Antimicrobial Peptides have their Day

Abstract

Professor Richard L Gallo completed an undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Chicago (IL, USA). He then went on to receive his MD degree and PhD in Radiation Biology and Biophysics from the University of Rochester School of Medicine (NY, USA). He completed an internship in Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital (MD, USA) before training in Dermatology and completing a postdoctoral fellowship in Cell and Developmental Biology at Harvard Medical School (MA, USA). While working as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, Professor Gallo made a landmark discovery by identifying the presence of antimicrobial peptides in mammalian skin. In 1999, he became an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego (CA, USA), and Chief of Dermatology at the VA San Diego (CA, USA). Currently, he is a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Dermatology at the University of California, San Diego. His research is focused on the role of the human innate immune system in skin, with a particular interest in antimicrobial peptides and the basic functions of the skin microbiome. To date, Professor Gallo has been involved in several important observations demonstrating the physiologic relevance of innate immunity in mice and the role of these pathways in several human diseases, work that has been published in a number of prestigious journals. He has received numerous awards for his research including the Montagna, Sulzberger, CERIES, Mertz, Nobel and Rene' Touraine Lectureships, and he has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians. His research is supported by grants from the NIH, the Veterans Administration and private foundations.