Inaugural Itch Conference Recording Package

Gil Yosipovitch, MD is a tenured Professor of Dermatology at the Miller School of Medicine at University of Miami, and Director of the Miami Itch Center. Prior to joining the faculty of University of Miami, Dr. Yosipovitch chaired the Department of Dermatology at Temple University and directed the first translational, clinical, and research center dedicated to the study of chronic itch in the US. He has been awarded dozens of grants from the government, industry, and private foundations. He has published more than 480 articles in books and peer reviewed journals and has edited 5 books. He is the founder and past president of the International Forum for the Study of Itch and served on the editorial boards of six key specialty journals. He received one of the highest awards in dermatology, the Marion B. Sulzberger lectureship award, at the 2016 AAD meeting. Dr. Yosipovitch was awarded several other prestigious awards for his research and work, including the Heinz Maurer prize by the German Dermatology Society in 1998, the Clinical Investigator Award of Wake Forest University, the inaugural Jeff Bernhard award in the World Conference of Itch in 2013, the highest award of Worclaw University Medical School in 2017, and the Ig Nobel in 2019. Dr. Yosipovitch has given more than 500 invited lectures to dermatology groups and organizations around the world and has mentored more than 30 fellows, PhD students, and post-doc fellows. 

Douglas DiRuggiero has 23 years of clinical experience in Dermatology. He is a nationally recognized medical lecturer, accomplished founder and President of several dermatology societies, and a passionate dermatology teacher. Douglas has been awarded clinical precepting awards by NP, PA and residency programs, Humanitarian PA of the Year for the state of Georgia, and named the National Dermatology PA of the Year by both the SDPA and the POCN Network. He was named the Dermatology Medical Educator of the Year in 2022 by the SDPA. He completed a Doctorate of Medical Sciences degree with an emphasis in Health Care Leadership and Evidence-Based Research in 2019.

Peter Lio, MD, FAAD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology & Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr Lio received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed his internship in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, and his Dermatology training at Harvard where he served as Chief Resident in Dermatology. While at Harvard, he received formal training in acupuncture. Dr. Lio is the founding director of the Chicago Integrative Eczema Center and a founding partner of Medical Dermatology Associates of Chicago. He serves as a board member and scientific advisory committee member emeritus for the National Eczema Association. He is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology’s Atopic Dermatitis Expert Resource Group, a Councilor for the International Eczema Council, and is a founding faculty member of the Integrative Dermatology Certificate Program. He has over 400 publications and 4 textbooks. 

Dr. Leigh Nattkemper, PhD, is a Research Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Trials at the University of Miami Dr. Phillip Frost Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery. She received her bachelor’s degree in microbiology and master’s degree in molecular medicine from the University of South Florida, then her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Temple University. Her current research focus is to better understand the pathobiology of chronic pruritus, and to develop and test targeted treatments that will be effective for a wide array of diseases that suffer from chronic itch. 

I first came to Wake Forest University as a medical student back in 2005. I loved my training at Wake Forest Baptist Health so much my husband and I stayed here for internship and residency. Upon graduating residency we moved to Baltimore for two years, but always wanted to return to Wake Forest Baptist and I joined the faculty in 2015. Since that time, I have grown my clinical interests in cutaneous lymphoma, atopic dermatitis, complex medical dermatology, and run the inpatient dermatology consult service. It is an honor and privilege to be surrounded by excellent faculty and healthcare learners and to provide care to my patients. My research interests are varied, but right now am focusing on clinical trials for atopic dermatitis patients. I also enjoy teaching the medical students and physician assistant students at Wake’s campus in Innovation Quarter. Outside of the medical center, I am busy with my three children and enjoy discovering new places! 

I am a physician scientist committed to understanding the immune system and how it contributes to health and disease. I am board certified in Allergy & Immunology, and I have a deep interest in finding new therapeutic modalities to treat allergic conditions such as chronic urticaria, mast cell activation, and itch. More generally, I seek to understand how the environment shapes neuroimmune responses to promote sensory dysfunction in allergic disease.

My early scientific training was in basic biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology. During my graduate studies, I defined structural determinants of innate immune receptor function and identified a mechanism by which ubiquitin modulates inflammatory signaling. After clinical training in Internal Medicine and Allergy and Immunology, my initial postdoctoral work was in mucosal immunology examining basic mechanisms of epithelial inflammation and injury in the gut and how the repair process is modulated by the microbiome. I successfully created novel reporters to determine the effect of microbial metabolites on intestinal epithelial cells and I had an integral role in identifying a role for fungi impairing epithelial repair in inflammatory bowel disease.

More recently, my interests have shifted to neuroimmunology, with an emphasis on pathophysiology of urticaria and itch. I contributed to studies identifying novel interactions between the immune system and sensory neurons to drive itch. I see patients in a translational specialty clinic focused on chronic spontaneous urticaria and chronic itch, allowing me to synergize my clinical efforts with my translational and basic research interests. My work on urticaria is funded by the NIH, and I engage in clinical trials for new therapies in chronic spontaneous urticaria. 

Matthew Zirwas, MD is an American Board of Dermatology certified physician. He is a nationally known expert who has been specializing in contact dermatitis, pruritus, atopic dermatitis and seborrheic dermatitis for the last 20 years.

His passion figuring out the real, practical, take-home messages that we can get from the medical literature. Not just reciting ‘the data’ or what the authors said, but synthesizing it and putting it in the context of how it can help patients. Basically figuring out ‘what this study REALLY means’ and ‘how does this connect to what we already know’, then explaining it in a practical, relatable, entertaining and memorable way.

In Dr. Zirwas’s free time, he enjoys spending time with his kids and cats. In that order.