Jouni Uitto was born in Helsinki, Finland. After having completed my MD-PhD studies at the University of Helsinki, I embarked on a postdoctoral fellowship, first in Copenhagen and then in Philadelphia, to continue my basic and translational research on collagen. After all, the title of my PhD Thesis was ‘Collagen Biosynthesis in the Skin’. Five years later, when I decided to embark on my clinical training, dermatology was a very attractive specialty, allowing me to continue research on connective tissue biology complementary to my clinical training. While a medical student in Finland, Dr. Kimmo Mustakallio, Professor of Dermatology, was very influential in my career development. Subsequently, Professor Gustav Asboe-Hansen in Copenhagen was very supportive of my studies. My basic science research training was performed mostly in the laboratory of Dr. Darwin J. Prockop, Professor of Biochemistry, first at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and subsequently at Rutgers Medical School. Finally, my residency director in dermatology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Dr. Arthur Z. Eisen, Professor of Dermatology, was most supportive of my training. I am very thankful to these individuals for providing me the training and opportunities allowing me to develop my own career as a physician–scientist. I have been active in several professional organizations over the years, including President of the Society for Investigative Dermatology (1986–1987), President (1993–2003) and Chairman of the Board of Trustees (2003–2010) of Dermatology Foundation, and President of the Philadelphia Dermatological Society (1998–1999). I have been most pleased to be able to continue sustained and internationally recognized research on heritable connective tissue and skin diseases, in addition to my clinical responsibilities as the Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology. I am particularly disappointed of the waning interest of current dermatology residents in research, as it pertains to the pathomechanisms and translational implications of skin disorders. There are a number of pioneers, and we are standing on the shoulders of all of them. There are many outstanding academic dermatologists, and among them are the following dermatology department chairs (past and present) who have trained at some point of their career in my laboratory (in chronological order): Aarne Oikarinen (Oulu, Finland), Veli-Matti Kähäri (Turku, Finland), Sirkku Peltonen (Gothenburg, Sweden), Angela Christiano (New York), Daisuke Sawamura (Hirosaki, Japan), John McGrath (London), Katsuto Tamai (Osaka, Japan), Lidia Rudnicka (Warsaw, Poland), Eli Sprecher (Tel Aviv), Marcel Jonkman (Groningen, The Netherlands), Johann Bauer (Salzburg), Gang Wang (Xi’an) and Sylvia Hsu (Philadelphia). Increased repertoire of therapeutics targeting pathomechanisms of skin diseases. I am particularly enthusiastic about genome-based treatments under development for rare heritable skin diseases, as exemplified by epidermolysis bullosa. *Note: The Pioneers in Dermatology and Venereology interview was conceived and conducted by Johannes Ring.