2026 Organizing Committee
 | Symposium Chair: Vice Chair for Research, Associate Dermatologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Shing-Yiu Yip and Cecilia M. Hepp Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School | Dr. Clark serves as the Martin C. Mihm, Jr., MD and Shing-Yiu Yip Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Human Skin Disease Resource Center, and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Clark’s research focuses on the study of T cell responses in human skin and other peripheral tissues. Her studies are informed by patient observations and have the goals of developing novel treatments for skin diseases and improving understanding of human tissue based immune responses. |
 | Symposium Co-organizer: Instructor, Harvard Medical School; Investigator, Department of Dermatology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital | William J. Crisler, PhD, is an Instructor in Dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School who studies how cytotoxic immune cells injure skin and initiate chronic fibrosis, with a focus on skin tissue-resident memory T cells and endothelial injury in connective tissue diseases. His work uses single-cell and spatial transcriptomics in human tissue to define how immune-mediated injury becomes persistent within fibrotic lesions and to identify targets capable of interrupting these self-sustaining fibrotic states. |
 | Symposium Co-organizer: Professor of Dermatology and Venereology, Karolinska Institutet Senior Physician, Karolinska University Hospital | Liv Eidsmo is Professor of Dermatology and Venereology and Senior Physician at Karolinska Institutet, where she leads her research group within the Department of Medicine, Solna. She combines translational research with clinical practice in dermatology at Karolinska University Hospital. Professor Eidsmo’s research focuses on human skin immunology, particularly the role of tissue-resident memory T (Trm) cells in maintaining skin barrier function and driving inflammatory skin diseases. Her group has defined functionally distinct subsets of Trm cells in healthy human skin based on CD49a expression and has characterized pathogenic Trm populations in vitiligo and psoriasis. Her current research aims to understand how human Trm cells are formed, how they interact with their local tissue environment, and how the Trm cell compartment can be normalized in inflammatory skin disease. Through her combined roles as scientist and clinician, she advances translational research to improve the understanding and treatment of immune-mediated skin disorders. |
 | Symposium Co-organizer: Professorial Fellow, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne | Thomas Gebhardt, PhD, is a Professorial Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. He is an internationally recognized immunologist whose research focuses on T cell biology, tissue-resident memory T (TRM) cells, and anti-tumor immunity, with particular relevance to melanoma and viral infection. Professor Gebhardt’s work has been instrumental in advancing understanding of how tissue-resident and recirculating memory CD8 and CD4 T cells contribute to protective immunity and cancer control. His research explores antigen reactivity, T cell exhaustion, stem-like T cell populations, and mechanisms of immune evasion within tumors. He has also investigated how microbiota-derived metabolites, such as butyrate, influence T cell stemness programs and sustain anti-melanoma immunity. Through extensive publication in leading immunology journals and contributions to authoritative book chapters on CD4 and CD8 T cell immunity, Professor Gebhardt continues to shape the conceptual framework of tissue-resident memory T cell biology and its application to cancer immunotherapy and infectious disease protection. |
 | Symposium Co-Director: Tamia Harris-Tryon, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, | Tamia Harris-Tryon, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dermatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Harris-Tryon earned her combined medical and doctoral degree in cellular and molecular medicine at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed a residency in dermatology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, before joining the UT Southwestern faculty in 2014. Dr. Harris-Tryon’s research focuses on the organisms that reside on the surface of the skin – collectively termed the “microbiota” – and how they impact the skin’s immune system. Her work is supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, UT Southwestern, and the Dermatology Foundation. In 2019, she earned the American Academy of Dermatology’s Young Investigator Award. |
 | Symposium Co-Director: Sancy Leachman, M.D., Ph.D. | Dr. Leachman completed a Dermatology Residency and a Research Fellowship in Dermatologic Oncology at Yale School of Medicine in 1998. She was recruited to the University of Utah following completion of her training, where she served as Professor of Dermatology and Director of the Melanoma and Cutaneous Oncology Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute until 2013. She was then recruited to become Chair of the Department of Dermatology at OHSU and Director of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Research Program at Knight Cancer Institute until 2025, when she was recruited back to the University of Utah to serve as Vice-Chair of Faculty Development. Dr. Leachman’s clinical practice focuses primarily on skin cancer, melanoma, and genetic syndromes that increase the risk for skin cancer or other internal malignancies. She is a strong advocate for skin screenings, patient education and community outreach and has led statewide efforts in Oregon to improve early diagnosis of melanoma to reduce death due to this disease. Her research has focused on melanoma in the basic science lab, through translational human studies/trials, and in the public health arena. When not tending to patients, Dr Leachman loves spending time with her husband, son, and daughter. She also loves to make yogurt and sourdough bread and can be found hiking regularly in Toll Creek Canyon with her dogs. |
 | Symposium Co-director: Dennis Roop, Ph.D. | Dennis Roop, Ph.D. is a professor of dermatology and the director of the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus. Roop is one of the first investigators to begin using molecular techniques to study how the skin forms during normal embryonic development. He has identified many of the genes required for normal skin development and discovered that defects in some of these genes cause inherited skin diseases characterized by a very fragile skin, which blisters easily and may result in neonatal death. His current, primary research focuses on generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from patients with inherited skin diseases, genetically correcting these cells and differentiating them into a skin stem cell lineage, which can be returned to the same patient. This seminal research led to the 2016 formation of the EB iPS Cell Consortium with research teams from Colorado, Stanford and Columbia Universities uniting to fight the rare and debilitating genetic skin blistering disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).
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 | Symposium Co-director: Alex Ortega Loayza, M.D., M.C.R. Professor and Interim Chair of Dermatology | Dr. Alex Ortega Loayza is a board-certified dermatologist specializing in both general and complex dermatology. He is also board-certified in internal medicine, and has completed his Master of Clinical Research. Dr. Ortega is particularly interested in the treatment of psoriasis, sarcoidosis, and pyoderma gangrenosum (PG). Dr. Ortega is the Interim Chair of the OHSU Department of Dermatology. Dr. Ortega’s research focuses on advancing diagnostic tools and treatment for the rare and often misdiagnosed condition of pyoderma gangrenosum. At OHSU, he has assembled a team of basic scientists, biostatisticians, and clinicians to form the pyoderma gangrenosum study team (PYGAS). He is also the co-leader of the Pyoderma Gangrenosum Group for the International Dermatology Outcome Measures and has been sponsored by the Medical Dermatology Society and American Academy of Dermatology to develop consensus guidelines to treat PG patients. Dr. Ortega enjoys working with medical students and residents in clinic as well as in scholarly activities and research projects. He has published several peer-reviewed papers, is a reviewer for several dermatology journals and has spoken at numerous medical conferences. |
 | Symposium Director Emerita: Molly Kulesz-Martin, Ph.D. | Molly Kulesz-Martin, Ph.D., has directed the Montagna Symposium on the Biology of Skin since 2004. During her 16-year directorship, over 1,700 scientists and clinicians have gathered at this historic meeting for presentation and discussion of the latest findings in skin and skin-related research, and over 150 young investigators have received travel awards to attend and present at the meeting. Dr. Kulesz-Martin, an expert in squamous cell carcinogenesis, trained at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and NCI.
In her early career, Dr. Kulesz-Martin established the first colony-based cell transformation assay of primary cultured murine epithelial cells and developed one of the few clonal lineage models of initiated, benign, and malignant and metastatic keratinocytes/squamous cell carcinoma. Recruited to OHSU in 1999, Dr. Kulesz-Martin led the Dermatology Research Division expansion from 1 to 7 primary and joint basic/translational science faculty.
As founding director of an IRB-approved tissue and clinical data repository founded in 2001 (Molecular Profiling Tissue Resource), Dr. Kulesz-Martin fosters collaborations at OHSU and beyond by providing primary epidermal and mucosal cell cultures, fresh frozen tissues of inflammatory lesions and cancers, and an outcomes database for research. |