2024 IPCC & DHHD Symposia

Two synergistic scientific meetings joined forces to understand rare skin disorders and advance research and treatments for patients who suffer from these painful diseases

All researchers and medical professionals were invited to join us right before the 2024 Society for Investigative Dermatology Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas for a remarkable collaboration of two groups dedicated to helping patients with pachyonychia (and other rare and painful palmoplantar keratodermas) and acantholytic (blistering) disorders.

Darier and Hailey-Hailey Disease (DHHD) Inaugural Symposium
Organized by Kathleen Green, Robert Harmon, Andrew Kowalczyk, and Cory Simpson
Click here to see the DHHD Symposium Program.

Joint Hosted Dinner with Darier and Hailey-Hailey Disease Symposium and IPCC Symposium Attendees
The Eldorado Room at The Ranch at Las Colinas

20th Annual International Pachyonychia Congenita Consortium (IPCC) Symposium
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Organized by PC Project and the IPCC Steering and Research Committees
Click here for full IPCC Symposium program or see below.

Keep scrolling to see photos of our two symposia, combined dinner, and our PC Project exhibit at the SID

Click for the complete IPCC Symposium program including bios and abstracts

20th International Pachyonychia Congenita Consortium Symposium

The Love-to-Science Session
Chair: Eli Sprecher, MD, PhD, IPCC Chair

8:00 – 8:10 am

International PC Consortium: Driven by love, guided by science

Janice Schwartz, BA

Executive Director, Pachyonychia Congenita Project

8:10 – 8:20 am

20 Years Strong: advancing the registry, research, education and patient support

C. David Hansen, MD

University of Utah Dermatology, PI of the International Pachyonychia Congenita Research Registry

8:20 – 8:35 am

Advances in the structure and function of intermediate filaments and what it means for PC patients

Christopher G. Bunick, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Dermatology
Program in Translational Biomedicine
Yale University

8:35 – 8:50 am

Thoughts of a NIAMS (NIH) Program Director on facilitating research into rare skin diseases

Peter J. Koch, PhD

Program Director, Epidermis, Dermis and Skin Senses Program (NIAMS/NIH)

The (PC) Science Session
Chair: David Kelsell, PhD

8:55 – 9:10 am

The TOC mouse – a new model of palmoplantar keratoderma

Diana Blaydon, PhD

Lecturer, Centre for Cell Biology and Cutaneous Research, Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London UK

9:10 – 9:25 am

Stress keratin function in skin epithelia, and its relevance to Pachyonychia Congenita

Pierre A. Coulombe, PhD

G. Carl Huber Professor and Chair
Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School

9:25 -9:40 am

Inhibition of stress keratin induction by interfering with mechanotransduction pathways

Joshua Tam, PhD

Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Affiliate Faculty, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology

9:45-10:10 am Group Photo and Break

The (PPK) Science Session
Chair: Robyn Hickerson, PhD

10:10 – 10:25 am

Autoinflammatory disease with painful calluses and epithelial abnormalities caused by novel NLRP1 variants in 4 families

Alain Hovnanian, MD, PhD

Professor and Director, Laboratory of Genetic skin diseases, IMAGINE Institute for Genetic Diseases, INSERM UMR 1163, Department of Genomic Medicine of rare diseases at Necker hospital, Department of Dermatology at Saint-Louis hospital, University of Paris Cité

10:25 – 10:40 am

Epidermal Differentiation at a Single Cell Level

Bogi Andersen, MD

Professor, Departments of Medicine and Biological Chemistry, School of Medicine
University of California, Irvine

10:40 – 10:55 am

Role of the keratin-endoplasmic reticulum contact site in epidermolysis bullosa simplex

Navaneetha (Nav) Krishnan Bharathan, PhD

Researcher, Department of Dermatology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey

10:55 – 11:10 am

Regulation of cell adhesion and cytoskeletal dynamics in epidermal barrier formation and maintenance

Carien M. Niessen, PhD

Department Cell Biology of the Skin, CECAD, and Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, University Hospital of Cologne, University of Cologne

The Science-to-Love Session
Chair: Pierre Coulombe, PhD

11:15 – 11:30 am

Skin in health and disease through the lens of single-cell and spatial-seq technologies

Johann E. Gudjonsson MD, PhD

Arthur C. Curtis Professor of Skin Molecular Immunology, Professor, Dept. of Dermatology, Professor, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Taubman Medical Research Institute, University of Michigan

11:30 – 11:45 am

Tools for clinical trials (clinical and research)

Edel O’Toole, MD, PhD, FRCP

Professor of Molecular Dermatology, Co-Director of HARP PhD Programme for Health Professionals, Queen Mary University of London

11:45 -12:05 pm

Monogenic disorders: the end of an era?

Eli Sprecher, MD, PhD

Professor and Chair, Division of Dermatology
Deputy Director General for R&D and Innovation, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Frederick Reiss Chair of Dermatology, Department of Human Molecular Genetics & Biochemistry, Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs
Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

12:05 – 12:30 pm

Group Discussion: Where do we go from here?

All attendees invited to participate

2024 IPCC Symposium Photos