Researcher Profile

The laboratory of Dr. Ryan Hobbs broadly studies how skin keratinocytes respond to mechanical, chemical and environmental stressors at the cellular and molecular levels. The inability to control stress responses is a key feature in all skin disorders. Thus, the lab's research seeks to identify and understand molecular mechanisms that underlie a number of distinct skin disorders including non-melanoma skin cancers, alopecia, vitiligo, psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.

Major efforts are centered around the study of autoimmune regulator (Aire) in skin keratinocytes. Aire is a unique transcriptional regulator that is classically known as a master regulator of autoimmunity, owing to its abundant expression in a subset of medullary thymic epithelial cells and function as a key regulator of negative selection to eliminate self-reactive T-lymphocytes. Previous findings indicate Aire becomes abundantly expressed in skin keratinocytes in response to acute and chronic stressors. Loss of function mutations in Aire are causative for the disease autoimmune-polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy (APECED). These patients often present with many skin abnormalities including hair loss, nail dystrophy, vitiligo, and oral mucocutaneous candidiasis. A central focus of the research program is to elucidate when, where, how and why Aire is expressed and functional in skin.