Pathophysiology and Psychosocial Impact of Vitiligo

Victor Huang, MD, graduated from UCSF Medical School in 2008, during which he completed a Howard Hugh Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in laboratory of Sam Hwang, MD, PhD studying skin inflammation and immunology. He subsequently completed a residency in Dermatology at Washington University in St. Louis in 2012, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship studying skin resident T cells in the laboratory of Rachael Clark, MD, PhD at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In 2014, he assumed the role as Director of the Vitiligo Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and has been involved with investigator initiated trials, clinical, and epidemiologic research focusing on vitiligo. He also completed a year-long mentorship program through the American Academy of Dermatology working with Amit Pandya, MD, in 2018. He has lectured nationally on the topic of vitiligo and maintains and interest in developing meaningful outcome measures of patients affected by this disease. Since 2018, Dr. Huang has established a vitiligo specialty clinic in the Department of Dermatology at the University of California, Davis.

The standard of care for vitiligo includes topical immune modulators including topical steroids and calcineurin inhibitors, UV-based phototherapy, and systemic immune modulators. These agents inhibit the autoimmune inflammatory response in the skin. In the case of UV-based phototherapy, the therapy is thought to stimulate melanogenesis and repigmentation as well. The repigmentation process occurs over the course of months to years. Second line treatments include surgical approaches designed to transplant autologous viable melanocytes to depigmented areas. There have been several advances in recent years with regards to understanding the underlying immunologic pathogenesis of vitiligo leading to promising new targeted immune modulating therapies.

Dr. Iltefat Hamzavi is a dermatologist who works at Henry Ford Hospital and Hamzavi/Dermatology Specialists. His work has a focus on vitiligo, photomedicine, and hidradenitis suppurativa. Within vitiligo his work has focused on improving phototherapy options for vitiligo patients. His group has also led North American efforts in developing surgical treatments for vitiligo. He has participated in developing the VASI score and updated scores as a way to measure treatment response for vitiligo patients. He is also one of the founders and Co-chair of the Global Vitiligo Foundation. This is a group which aims to improve the lives of vitiligo patients by supporting initiatives like the World Vitiligo Day and vitiligo research updates. He is a passionate metro Detroiter, husband, and father of 3.