Benoît Arveiler

Dr. Benoit Arveiler is a molecular biologist who has been involved in the genetics of albinism over the last 20 years. His laboratory in Bordeaux, France, manages a cohort of more than 2000 patients, aiming to improve diagnosis, study phenotype-genotype correlations and identify pathogenic non-exonic variants. They recently identified the genes responsible for OCA8 and HPS11, and identified a complex haplotype comprising coding and non-coding variants in the TYR gene.

Carola Berking

After her training in dermatology at the LMU in Munich and a postdoc at the Wistar Cancer Institute in Philadelphia, she specialized in dermato-oncology with a focus on melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer as a clinical trialist and clinician scientist. Since 2019 she has been chair of dermatology at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and head of the Department of Dermatology at the Uniklinikum Erlangen. In 2024 Prof. Berking was elected Vice Dean of Research at the Faculty of Medicine.

Corinne Bertolotto

Anja Bosserhoff

Prof. Anja Bosserhoff, Ph.D., chair of the Institute of Biochemistry, University of Erlangen, received her Diploma of Biology in 1993 from the University of Bielefeld and her PhD in 1995 from the University of Regensburg, Germany. She became lecturer for "Cellular and molecular pathology" in 2000 (Medical Faculty of the RWTH Aachen). In 2002, she joined the Institute of Pathology as Professor of Molecular Pathology; in 2014, she moved to the University of Erlangen as Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine.

Research interests include the systematic analysis of regulation of cell-cell- and cell-matrix attachment, the identification of miR and miR processing in melanoma, and the characterization of molecular mechanisms in melanocytic differentiation. The molecular basis of malignant melanoma has been one of her major research interests since 1993 and she is currently principal investigator of eight funded projects to clarify the role of distinct genes in melanoma development and progression.

Dr. Bosserhoff is member of the ESPCR, a founding member of the Society of Melanoma Research and member of its steering committee since 2008, serving as Treasurer since 2012. Anja has chaired several international scientific meetings on melanoma including the SMR meeting in Amsterdam in 2006. She also serves on the editorial board of Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research.

Markus Böhm

Markus Böhm is Associate Professor and head of the Outpatients Clinic of the Dept. of Dermatology, University of Münster, Germany. He has a longstanding interest in basic pigment cell biology and melanocortin peptides and neuroendocrine mediators in Skin biology. He is member of the International Vitiligo Task Force, coordinator of the German vitiligo guideline S2k upgrade and involved in several projects of Health Services Research on vitiligo in Germany and Europe.

Daniela De Zio

Daniela De Zio is team leader at the Danish Cancer Institute (DCI) in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has a strong background in the molecular biology of cancer and mouse genetics. After she obtained her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy), she conducted post-doctoral research in different institutes in Italy and Denmark. Her research at the DCI aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying melanoma development and resistance to therapy, both targeted and immune-based therapies, by using preclinical cancer models that mimic the disease's natural progression. In 2019, she received the prestigious Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award to investigate the autophagy protein AMBRA1 as a tumor suppressor in melanoma. Since 2023, she is Associate Professor in basal and translational cancer research at the Department of Cancer and Inflammation Research, Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Southern Denmark (SDU).

Heather Etchevers

Dr. Heather Etchevers obtained a joint Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California at Berkeley (US) and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6, France) in 1999-2000. After a postdoc in human genetics and embryology at the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, Heather obtained a tenured position at INSERM. Translational and collaborative interfaces have reinforced her motivation to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of birth defects.

Dr. Etchevers co-directs the Mechanisms of Paracrine and Endocrine Disorders team at Marseille Medical Genetics, affiliated with INSERM and Aix-Marseille Université (France). One major focus of her group is on somatic and germline RASopathy syndrome endophenotypes, particularly pigmentary, as models to understand more general principles of fate specification. The team studies the impacts of key effectors of growth factor transduction on development and the onset of multi-systemic birth defects. Heather is an ESPCR Board Member and chairs the organizing committee of this meeting.

Marie-Dominique Galibert

Marie-Dominique Galibert is Professor at the Medical School of the University of Rennes, France. She is the Deputy Director of the Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes (CNRS UMR6290), where she leads the Gene Expression and Oncogenesis research group. At the Hospital University of Rennes, she heads the Cancer Molecular Genetics clinical department.

After studying Pharmacy at the University of Paris V, Prof. Galibert undertook a PhD in Human Genetics at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. She pursued a European post-doctorate fellowship in the laboratory of Prof. Colin Goding, where she deciphered the biological and pathological processes of melanocytes and melanomas, focussing on the role of UV irradiation in melanocytes. Appointed to the Faculty of Medicine of Rennes in 2000, she developed her own research group within the Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes - CNRS UMR6290. Former board member of the ESPCR, she presided the 2018 annual meeting.

Prof. Galibert now focuses on understanding the genetic, epigenetic and molecular basis of cancer development, to identify new therapeutic targets and new markers. Her team has been granted recognition as “Equipe labellisée LNCC” by the cancer care foundation Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer.

Colin Goding

Professor Colin Goding completed a PhD in virology at the National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK, working on adenovirus DNA replication. He then moved as a post-doc to Pierre Chambon’s lab in Strasbourg, France, where his interest in gene regulation developed. At the Marie Curie Research Institute, he continued working on how genes are controlled, both in S. cerevisiae, as well as in melanocytes and melanoma. His work revealed how transcription factors could discriminate between different classes of binding motif, and identified the basis for regulation of melanocyte-specific genes. In 2008, he moved to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Oxford, UK to take up the position of Professor of Oncology, where he continues to examine the role of signaling and transcription in melanoma biology.

Prof. Goding has made a major contribution to understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning melanoma cell plasticity and developed the concept of phenotype-switching that drives metastatic dissemination and therapy resistance. More recently, he uncovered the critical role of translation reprogramming in cancer progression, and has identified a key regulator of lipid homeostasis as a major determinant of phenotypic identity. Former member of the ESPCR board, he was elected EMBO member in 2008 and Director of the Oxford Stem Cell Institute in 2015.

Dvir Gur

Dvir Gur earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he studied crystal formation in both in vitro and in vivo systems, with a focus on their photonic properties and applications. As a Human Frontiers Cross-Disciplinary Fellow and EMBO Fellow at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus, he investigated the biological regulation of intracellular crystal formation. In 2021, he established his lab in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute, focusing on the cell biology of crystal-forming cells and the mechanisms of biological crystallization in health and disease.

 The Gur Lab investigates the cross-species principles underlying crystal formation in the relatively understudied crystal-forming cells, aiming to uncover the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving these processes. In parallel, the lab applies these insights to the rational design of crystals with tailored properties and the development of new therapeutic strategies to address pathological crystallization in humans.

Panagiotis (Takis) Karras

Panagiotis (Takis) Karras is a junior group leader at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Institut Jules Bordet (IJB) in Brussels. He received his diploma in Biological Applications and Technologies and an MSc in Biotechnology from the University of Ioannina in Greece. Following his training in Greece, he pursued a PhD at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in Madrid, where he worked in the Melanoma Group under the guidance of M.S. Soengas, studying various aspects of melanoma metastasis. Driven to expand his expertise, Takis joined the VIB Center for Cancer Biology in Belgium as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of JC Marine. There, he developed innovative projects to address key questions about cellular plasticity in evolving melanoma ecosystems investigating how distinct cell states contribute to tumor growth and metastatic spread. His lab now focuses on non-genetic mechanisms driving metastasis and therapy resistance and the influence of environmental factors in this process, utilizing novel genetic models and human specimens.

Robert Kelsh

Robert Kelsh is a Professor and currently Head of Department of the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Bath. He has been studying the genetic mechanisms of neural crest, especially of pigment cell, development in zebrafish for 33 years. He was awarded his PhD in Evolutionary Developmental Biology in 1991 from the University of Cambridge. He began working with zebrafish whilst doing post-doctoral work with Prof. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (Max-Planck-Institüt Entwicklungsbiologie, Tübingen) and Prof. Judith Eisen (Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene), before moving to the University of Bath in 1997. His lab’s primary interests centre upon understanding how individual pigment cell fates are specified and differentiate from the neural crest and on the mechanisms of pigment pattern formation in fish. He has served as Secretary of the British Society for Developmental Biology (2003-2008), on the Council of the ESPCR (2009-2017) and as Associate Editor Reviews for PCMR (2013-2020). In 2023, he was honoured to receive the IFPCS’ Myron Gordon Award.

Luisa Lanfrancone

Dr. Luisa Lanfrancone directs the Melanoma group in the Department of Experimental Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan, Italy. She is a faculty member of the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM) in Milan. After her Ph.D. from the University of Torino, Dr. Lanfrancone had postdoctoral positions at the Department of Pathology of the New York University Medical Center, then in Turin, Perugia and finally Milan, where she established her group at the IEO.

Dr. Lanfrancone's research has mainly focused on the study of signal transduction mechanisms mediated by receptor activation and oxidative stress in cancer and aging. Her group has identified some of the molecular pathways involved in the progression of non-invasive, locally growing to more aggressive, metastatic melanomas. These studies allowed the establishment and characterization of model systems of melanoma progression in vitro, from primary cultures of normal human melanocytes and melanomas, and in vivo, by generating transgenic animals and patient-derived xenografts. More recently, the Lanfrancone lab has applied in vivo RNAi-based screenings of epigenetic and metabolic targets and kinase genes to study melanoma, breast and pancreatic cancer pathogenesis, leading to proposals for more effective combination therapies.

Lionel Larribère

Dr. Lionel Larribère is a molecular biologist with long-standing experience in translational research in the field of dermato-oncology. After defending his PhD at the University Côte d'Azur, Nice (France), he worked at several renowned research institutes such as the University of Michigan (USA) and the Spanish and the German National Cancer Research Centers (CNIO and DKFZ). He also guest-edited a special issue of the Journal of Clinical Medicine entitled "New advances in Melanoma" in 2019.

Recently, Dr. Larribère began a new position as Head of the Molecular Tumor Diagnostics subdivision at the SLK Clinic in Germany.

Lionel Larue

Dr. Lionel Larue is Research Director at the Institut Curie in Orsay, France. His lab studies melanocyte development and genetics, homeostasis, and transformation. They aim to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of melanocyte and melanoma development. Over the last 25 years, Dr. Larue's research has been addressing the establishment of melanocytes from melanoblasts, renewal from stem cells and focuses on signal transduction and gene regulatory networks concerning β-catenin, MITF/BRN2, and the MAPK and PI3K signaling pathways.

Dr. Larue is former President of the ESPCR and was awarded the Henry Stanley Raper Medal at the IPCC2017 conference in Denver, Colorado (US).

Eleonora Leucci

Eleonora Leucci obtained her PhD in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Siena (Italy) in 2007. Her doctoral work on miR-34 received the “Journal of Pathology Jeremy Jass prize” as highly commended paper in 2008. She then moved to BRIC, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) where she worked on short and long non-coding RNAs funded by and FSS postdoctoral grant in the lab of Anders Lund. Since 2012, she works in Belgium, where she was first a Marie Curie/VIB postdoctoral fellow in Chris Marine’s lab at VIB and then as FNRS research associate at ULB, studying the role of lncRNAs in skin cancer. As postdoctoral fellow, she was awarded the “Prize of the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences” and a special mention by the “ITalian association of Women Innovators and Innovators” for her work on the lncRNA SAMMSON in 2016. 

Since 2017 Eleonora Leucci leads the laboratory for RNA cancer biology and heads the PDX platform TRACE at KU Leuven. In 2018, she was awarded the “Melanoma Research Alliance young investigator award” to study RNA metabolism in melanoma with particular focus on the characterization of long non-coding RNAs important for therapy resistance.

Carmit Levy

I am a Full Professor at Tel Aviv University Medical School, where I joined at 2011. My goal is to provide the foundation for developing novel approaches with respect to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of skin cancer in general, and melanoma – the deadliest type of skin cancer – in particular. I have M.A. in pharmacy, Ph.D in biochemistry from the Hebrew University and a post-doctorate from Harvard Medical School. In my lab we study fundamental question in the development of melanoma and melanocyte using genetic, molecular, cellular genetics and computational aspects, including publication in Nature-Cell-Biology, Molecular-Cell, Nature-Metabolism, Science-Signaling, Nature Communications, the EMBO journal, Cancer Research and many more.

I have won the consolidator ERC and the ERC advanced and many international and national others. My work was acknowledged internationally by awarding with The International Young Melanoma Researcher Award of 2019, being the first Israeli to win this award. I was recently on sabbatical for two years at the Curie Institute in Paris, receiving the Mayent Rotschild award.

Kerrie Marie

Dr. Marie completed her PhD at the MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh studying mechanisms of melanocyte development and regeneration. She then moved to the National Cancer Institute, USA, for her Postdoc to study mechanisms of melanoma progression. Dr Marie established her lab in 2022 at the University of Manchester. Her research group focuses on understanding cell fate choices in melanoblasts (melanocyte precursors) and melanoma for therapeutic intervention. Specifically, Dr Marie’s group unravel how regulatory mechanisms that control cell state in the embryonic neural crest lineage are also re-activated to control plastic cell state switching in melanoma progression. Dr Marie’s research lab has a strong modelling theme using animal models of developmental biology and cancer biology.

Chris Marine

Jean-christophe (Chris) Marine is Professor at KU Leuven (Belgium), senior VIB group leader and Director of the VIB center for Cancer Biology. He received numerous national and international awards for his work on cytokine signaling and cancer biology. He, for instance, received the outstanding research award from SMR in 2019 and was elected EMBO member in 2020. His interests focus on the mechanisms by which cancer-specific non-mutational (i.e. epigenetic and (post-) transcriptional) events shape tumour evolution. Using innovative genetic tools and leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as single-cell multiomics, spatial transcriptomics and proteomics, the Marine lab has made several key contributions to our understating of melanoma biology and, in particular, the mechanisms underlying melanoma initiation, growth, metastatic dissemination, emergence of inter-and intra-tumor heterogeneity, plasticity and resistance to both targeted and immune checkpoint therapy.

Pedro Moura-Alves

Dr. Moura-Alves studied Biochemistry at Universidade da Beira Interior (Covilhã, Portugal), graduating in 2004. During his last year as a Biochemistry student, he undertook a research project at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands). Soon after, he joined the Graduated Program in Areas of Basic and Applied Biology (GABBA) at the University of Porto (Portugal). In 2005, moved to Boston (USA) to start his PhD research project, joining the group of Prof. Dr. Bruce Walker (Partners AIDS Research Center/Massachusetts General Hospital/ Harvard Medical School). In 2007, returned to Portugal, joining the group of Dr. Luís Ferreira Moita (Instituto de Medicina Molecular- João Lobo Antunes, Lisboa, Portugal). After finishing his PhD in 2010, Dr. Moura Alves joined the group of Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Kaufmann at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (Berlin, Germany), as a postdoctoral fellow. In March 2019, Dr. Moura Alves started his independent research group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research/University of Oxford (Oxford, UK). As of February 2022, Dr. Moura Alves is an independent group leader and ERA Chair Holder (ImmunoHub) at the i3S (Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saude/ Universidade do Porto (Oporto, Portugal).  

The Moura-Alves laboratory focus on dissecting the the role of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AHR) as a dynamic and key sensor of the microenvironment and homeostasis, with a focus on Infection and Cancer.

Lluis Montoliu

Professor Lluis Montoliu is a biologist, CSIC Research Scientist and Deputy Director at the National Centre for Biotechnology(CNB) and member of the Steering Committee of the Spanish Research Initiative on Rare Diseases, in Madrid, Spain after working in Heidelberg and Barcelona. He is the Director of the Spanish node of the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA/INFRAFRONTIER). He has been Honorary Professor at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and is currently Honorary Professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM).

At the CNB, since 1997, Prof. Montoliu leads a research team interested in basic science (genome organization), and in applied biomedical science, using animal models for the study of human rare diseases, such as albinism. Lluis is currently president of the ESPCR after many years on its board, and has been honored with the H.S. Raper Medal from the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies for his many contributions to the fields of pigmentation and albinism.

Liz Patton

Dr. E. Elizabeth Patton received a BSc Honours degree from King’s College at Dalhousie University, and a PhD from the University of Toronto, working with Mike Tyers to discover how E3 ubiquitin ligases control cell division. Following this, Liz received a Human Frontier Science Programme Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Professor Len Zon at Harvard Medical School, where she developed a zebrafish model for melanoma. Her lab, at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, uses chemical genetic approaches in zebrafish to investigate gene-drug interactions in melanocyte development, as well as in melanoma biology.

Dr. Patton is a Handling Editor at Disease Models and Mechanisms (Company of Biologists, Cambridge UK), and serves as an editorial board member for Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research (Wiley). Dr. Patton was the founding President of the Zebrafish Disease Models Society (2013-2015) and currently serves as a Board member, and is an elected member of the Young Academy of Scotland at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and former ESPCR board member. Dr. Patton’s research is funded by the Medical Research Council, the European Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and a L’Oréal Paris USA–MRA Team Science Award for Women in Scientific Research.

Mauro Picardo

Professor Mauro Picardo is a former board member and President of the ESPCR. Professor of Dermatology at the UNICAMILLUS International University and clinical researcher at the Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata in Rome, he was trained at the Rome University “La Sapienza”. Prof. Picardo was the director of the Cutaneous Physiopathology Laboratory and Integrated Center of Metabolomic Research and Scientific Director at the San Gallicano Dermatological Institute in Rome.

The main topics of interest of his research group are skin biochemistry and metabolism, free radicals mediated damage, skin lipidomics, mechanism of control of skin pigmentation, pigmentary disorders, particularly Vitiligo and Melasma, acne, and related disorders. Prof. Picardo has organized several national and international conferences, including the First International Vitiligo Symposium in Rome in 2016. With Prof. Alain Taieb, he co-edited the textbook Vitiligo (Springer-Nature) and is chair of the Vitiligo European Task Force and the Pigmentary Disorders group of the EADV.

Graça Raposo

Dr. Graça Raposo is Research Director at CNRS and a team leader at the Institut Curie, Dept of Cell Biology and Cancer, Paris, France. She is a renowned cell biologist interested in lysosomes and related organelles, extracellular vesicles and human skin pigmentation and her work has further impacted the fields of immunology, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Raposo has been recognized with the French CNRS Silver Medal, the Descartes-Huygens Prize of the Royal Dutch Academy, the ISEV (International Society for Extracellular Vesicles) achievement award, the Grand Prix Raymond Castaing from the French Society for Microscopy, the Mrs. Urmilla Agrawal Distinguished Professor for “Women in Science” of the Indian Institute of Sciences in 2022, and has received a Doctor Honoris Causa from Oslo University, Norway.

Miguel Seabra

Miguel C. Seabra is a Professor of Biomedicine at the Nova Medical School of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal since 2007.  MCS holds a PhD from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (1992), where he was an Assistant Professor, before moving to the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London (1997) where he became Full Professor and Head of Section until 2007. MCS was president of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) from 2012 to 2015, the portuguese public funding agency for science and research in Portugal. More recently, he became Head of Global Eye Initiative at Fundação Champalimaud. MCS is a leading researcher in the field of cellular and molecular medicine, published over 180 papers attracting over 20,000 citations and an h-index of 73.

Panos Sergouniotis

Dr Panos Sergouniotis is a Wellcome Clinician Scientist at the University of Manchester and an Honorary Consultant in Ophthalmology and Genetics at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine

 Panos studied Medicine at the University of Athens and received a PhD in Ophthalmic Genetics from University College London (UCL).  He subsequently joined the University of Manchester where he leads a multidisciplinary research group working at the interface of genomics, developmental biology and clinical ophthalmology. He has published extensively in the field of vision research (including a textbook on ‘Clinical Ophthalmic Genetics and Genomics’ and >100 papers) and has received multiple awards (including a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship).

 Panos has set up a Paediatric Ophthalmic Genetic service in Manchester and has a long-standing clinical interest in inherited retinal conditions and albinism. His long-term goals include (i) advancing our understanding of the basic developmental and organisational principles of the human fovea, and (ii) developing models that will help measure, model and promote healthy visual system development in infants and young children.

Lukas Sommer

Lukas Sommer is a full professor at the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Zurich and the current Director of the institute. Lukas Sommer is Co-Director of SKINTEGRITY.CH, a research initiative that brings together experts from multiple disciplines with the aim to better understand, diagnose and treat acute and chronic skin defects and malignant skin diseases.

His research focuses primarily on neural crest development and stem cell populations within that lineage. His studies address how embryonic programs related to neural crest development are hijacked and used in the adult organism during tumorigenesis and tissue regeneration.

Eiríkur Steingrímsson

Professor Eiríkur Steingrimsson earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and his postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health, Maryland (US). He is Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Iceland.

Eiríkur has extensive experience in gene transcription with a specific focus on gene regulation in melanoma. He is one of the founders of Akthelia Pharmaceuticals (Iceland) and has served on various other boards and review panels.

Alpaslan (Aslan) Tasdogan

Alpaslan (Aslan) Tasdogan is a clinician scientist and trained dermato-oncologist. He is the director of the Institute for Tumor Metabolism at the Department of Dermatology at the UK Essen in Germany. His laboratory is engaged in research on tumor metabolism and the mechanisms of cancer metastasis. His team is at the forefront of investigations into metabolic alterations in cancer and stem cells, with a particular focus on malignant melanoma. His research aims to elucidate the role of metabolic adaptations in cancer metastasis and to identify potential therapeutic interventions using advanced techniques, including mass spectrometry, spatial metabolomics, and stable isotope tracers.

Meri K Tulic

Dr. Meri Tulic is a Research Director at the INSERM laboratory U1065, C3M, in Nice, France working with Prof. Thierry Passeron. She is a trained immunologist (University of Western Australia, Perth) with early interests in developmental immunobiology and particular focus on early immune dysregulation in respiratory disease including asthma and allergy. She continued this theme of research during her postdoctoral training at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada (2000-2004) and on her return to Perth (2004-2011).

She was promoted to full Professorship in 2012 and in 2013 obtained permanent researcher position with INSERM in Nice, France. Her research theme is immunoregulation of skin diseases using multidisciplinary approaches in bench-to-clinic translational studies in humans, with particular focus on pigmentary disorders including vitiligo. Her team aims to understand the early triggers of this disease by studying the impact of cutaneous microenvironment and targeting innate immunity in its pathogenesis, for early prevention of the disease. Meri has published more than 130 papers, including those in Lancet, Nature Comm, Gut, and Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and has won numerous Prizes and Rewards for her research. Current ESPCR board member, she was on the organising committee for 2024 annual meeting in Marseille.

Richard White

The White lab is interested in the relationship between melanocytes and melanoma. Using both zebrafish and human iPS stem cell models, his lab has found that the normal heterogeneity of melanocytes is a key determinant of whether DNA mutations can initiate tumors. Both the differentiation state of the melanocyte, as well as its anatomic position along the body axis, determine the consequence of such mutations. For example, whereas cutaneous melanomas are enriched for BRAF mutations, acral melanomas more commonly harbor amplifications of genes such as CRKL. These specific oncogenes depend upon the positional gene program in the melanocytes, suggesting that an anatomic code could be a targetable vulnerability in melanoma. His more recent work has investigated how cells in the TME such as keratinocytes and adipocytes promote the transition of melanocytes to melanoma, acting through signaling and epigenetic mechanisms. In this talk, he will describe his lab’s recent efforts to understand the underlying basis of melanocyte heterogeneity across the body.

Marisol Soengas