Amy S. Paller, MD

Walter J. Hamlin Professor and Chair
Department of Dermatology
Professor of Pediatrics

Biography

Dr. Amy Paller is the Walter J. Hamlin Professor and Chair of Dermatology and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree and graduate degree in Genetics from Brown University, and her medical degree from Stanford University. Dr. Paller completed residency training in both Pediatrics and Dermatology at Northwestern University, and her research fellowship training at the University of North Carolina.

A pediatric dermatologist, Dr. Paller served as head of the Division of Pediatric Dermatology at Children's Memorial Hospital for 16 years prior to becoming Chair of the Department of Dermatology at Northwestern. Dr. Paller has served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society for Investigative Dermatology, the Society for Pediatric Dermatology, and the Women's Dermatologic Society. She is currently a Director of the American Board of Dermatology, and has served as President of the Society for Investigative Dermatology and the Society for Pediatric Dermatology. An author of more than 350 publications, Dr. Paller is an NIH-funded investigator who investigates the role of gangliosides in skin cell function and is an expert on genetic disorders of the skin.  She is currently the Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Northwestern Skin Disease Research Center.

Dr. Paller has edited several major dermatology textbooks, among them Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine, 7th Edition and Pediatric Dermatology. She is also coauthor of Hurwitz's Clinical Pediatric Dermatology, 3rd Edition. Dr. Paller is currently Assistant Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Associate Editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals. Dr. Paller is on the scientific advisory boards for several major support organizations for patients, among them the National Eczema Association, the National Psoriasis Foundation, the Foundation for Ichthyosis and Related Skin Types, and the Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association.

Research Interests

Dr. Paller's laboratory is investigating the role of gangliosides in keratinocyte function. Gangliosides are cell-specific sialylated glycosphingolipids of eukaryotic membranes that affect cell-cell recognition, cell-substratum interactions, cell growth regulation, differentiation, and oncogenic transformation. Dr. Paller's laboratory initially defined the ganglioside content of epidermis and cultured keratinocytes, and provided evidence of changes in ganglioside content in disorders of epidermal hyperproliferation, including psoriasis, ichthyosis and squamous and basal cell carcinomas. The laboratory has also shown that modulation of ganglioside content by a variety of biochemical and molecular biological means profoundly affects skin cell function through interaction with receptors and interruption of downstream signaling. For example, gangliosides can: (i) down-regulate EGF receptor phosphorylation; (ii) interact with integrins to prevent keratinocyte adhesion, migration and spreading on a fibronectin matrix; (iii) promote apoptosis of keratinocytes and SCC12 cells plated on fibronectin; and (iv) render cells resistant to apoptosis upon depletion.

More recently, the laboratory has shown a role of gangliosides as membrane organizers, encouraging or preventing the aggregation of receptors and signaling molecules in lipid rafts that enables signaling to occur. For example, ganglioside GM3 promotes the formation of a membrane-based complex that is critical for the PKC-</EGFR interaction that suppresses keratinocyte proliferation.  Dr. Paller's laboratory has more recently turned its attention to the role of glycolated sphingolipids in regulating wound healing using both biochemical and genetic mouse model of altered ganglioside biosynthesis.

Dr. Paller is also an active clinical trials investigator. She has been involved in more than 70 clinical trials, and currently is conducting research on atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, localized scleroderma, and epidermolysis bullosa.  She has been honored with many awards for her clinical practice, mentoring, and research.  Among these are Best Doctor in America since early 1990's, Top Chicago Doctors 1993-2009, Women's Dermatological Society Mentor of the Year award, the Gold Triangle award from the American Academy of Dermatology, and Women Leaders of the Society for Investigative Dermatology award.