Vitiligo: Examining the Role of the JAK Pathway and Its Inhibitors

Dr. Raja Sivamani is a board-certified dermatologist and practices as an integrative dermatologist at Pacific Skin Institute. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Clinical Dermatology at the University of California, Davis and Director of Clinical Research and the Clinical Trials Unit.He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the California State University, Sacramento and an Associate Professor of Dermatology at California Northstate University, College of Medicine.He engages in clinical practice as well as both clinical and translational research that integrates bioengineering, nutrition, cosmetics, and skin biology. With training in both Allopathic and Ayurvedic medicine, he takes an integrative approach to his patients and in his research.He has published over 100 peer-reviewed research manuscripts, 10 textbook chapters, and a textbook entitled Cosmeceuticals and Active Cosmetics, 3rd Edition with a passion for expanding the evidence and boundaries of integrative medicine for skin care.

Victor Huang, MD, graduated from UCSF Medical School in 2008, during which he completed a Howard Hugh Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in laboratory of Sam Hwang, MD, PhD studying skin inflammation and immunology. He subsequently completed a residency in Dermatology at Washington University in St. Louis in 2012, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship studying skin resident T cells in the laboratory of Rachael Clark, MD, PhD at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In 2014, he assumed the role as Director of the Vitiligo Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and has been involved with investigator initiated trials, clinical, and epidemiologic research focusing on vitiligo. He also completed a year-long mentorship program through the American Academy of Dermatology working with Amit Pandya, MD, in 2018. He has lectured nationally on the topic of vitiligo and maintains and interest in developing meaningful outcome measures of patients affected by this disease. Since 2018, Dr. Huang has established a vitiligo specialty clinic in the Department of Dermatology at the University of California, Davis.

The standard of care for vitiligo includes topical immune modulators including topical steroids and calcineurin inhibitors, UV-based phototherapy, and systemic immune modulators. These agents inhibit the autoimmune inflammatory response in the skin. In the case of UV-based phototherapy, the therapy is thought to stimulate melanogenesis and repigmentation as well. The repigmentation process occurs over the course of months to years. Second line treatments include surgical approaches designed to transplant autologous viable melanocytes to depigmented areas. There have been several advances in recent years with regards to understanding the underlying immunologic pathogenesis of vitiligo leading to promising new targeted immune modulating therapies.

Susan C. Taylor is the Bernett Johnson Endowed Professor of Dermatology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. In addition, she is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston and is a diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Dermatology.

Dr. Taylor’s clinical and research focus includes pigmentary disorders, acne, and alopecia. Her work has focused on advancing clinical knowledge and addressing gaps in central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia. She also serves as Principal Investigator for Phase II through Phase IV clinical research trials. Dr. Taylor has over 100 original publications as well as five books, including Taylor and Kelly’s Dermatology for Skin of Color. She has given more than 80 lectures both nationally and internationally. Before joining Penn, Dr. Taylor was in private practice at Society Hill Dermatology from 1989 until 2016.

Dr. Taylor was elected President-elect of the American Academy of Dermatology and will take office in March 2024. Dr. Taylor was the recipient of the AAD’s 2022 Inaugural John Kenney Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award and Lectureship. She served as AAD Vice President 2020-2021. Dr. Taylor is the 2022 recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching from the Perelman School of Medicine.

Professor Taylor is a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, and a member of the American Dermatological Association, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, the Noah Worcester Dermatological Society, the Skin of Color Society, the Women’s Dermatologic Society, the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the Philadelphia Dermatology Society. She serves on the editorial boards of Archives in Dermatologic Research, Cutis, and Practical Dermatology and is a peer reviewer for several other journals, including Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, British Journal of Dermatology, JAMA Dermatology, and Journal of Drugs in Dermatology.