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Biography Dr. Robert Lavker is currently Professor of Dermatology at Northwestern and Director of Dermatology Research. He completed his undergraduate training at the University of Delaware and his PhD. Training at Clemson University. He also received an honorary Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. His performed postdoctoral fellowship training at the Boston University School of Medicine, where he subsequently served as an Assistant Professor. After another fellowship year at the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the faculty at University of Pennsylvania where he was promoted to Professor and served as Director of Research for their Department of Dermatology. He joined the research faculty in the Department of Dermatology at Northwestern in 2002 as the Director of Research. Dr. Lavker has served on the Board of Directors of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, and is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. He is the author of approximately 150 papers, reviews and chapters related to dermatological research. He is particularly interested in hair biology, stem cells and photoaging. Research Interests Dr. Lavker's laboratory has centered on investigations of processes of proliferation and differentiation in keratinizing tissues. His laboratory in conjunction with Tung-Tien Sun's laboratory at NYU was the first to demonstrate that stem cells of the corneal epithelium were located within the limbal epithelium. This finding has had substantial impact on corneal epithelial transplantation for treating patients with damage to the ocular surface. The fornical epithelium has also been demonstrated to be enriched in conjunctival epithelial stem cells. With respect to the skin, Drs. Lavker and Sun were the first to demonstrate the existence of stem cells at the tips of the deep rete ridges of palm epidermis, and in the bulge region of the outer root sheath epithelium of the hair follicle. The latter observation formed the basis for a new hypothesis on the mechanism(s) involved in the regulation of the hair growth cycle. More recently, novel techniques have been developed that can selectively tag subpopulations of proliferating cells, and the hair follicle has been shown to be a major repository of skin keratinocyte stem cells. This indicates that the bulge follicular stem cells are bipotent because they give rise not only to the hair follicle but also to the epidermis. The Lavker laboratory also has a long-standing interest in studying the intrinsic and extrinsic effects of age on the structure of the epidermis and dermis. To this end, the laboratory has described chronic inflammatory changes in photodamaged skin and provided evidence of mast cell-fibroblast interactions. More recently the laboratory has focused on the role of ultraviolet A (UVA) in the etiology of photodamaged skin. Findings suggest that UVA may contribute significantly to long-term actinic damage and underscore the need for effective broad UVA-blocking sunscreens.
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