Pablo Fernandez Penas

Biography

Pablo Fernández Peñas is Associate Professor in Dermatology at Sydney Medical School (The University of Sydney), and Senior Medical Practitioner (Academic) at Westmead Hospital since 2007. He was appointed Head of Research at Skin and Cancer Foundation Australia in 2008 and Head of the Department of Dermatology at Westmead Hospital in 2010. In 2015, he was appointed Chair of the NSW Faculty of the Australasian College of Dermatologists. Pablo is a MD (1989) and PhD (2000) of the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid, Spain. Previously, Staff Specialist (Dermatology) at Hospital Universitario de la Princesa (Madrid, Spain, 1995-2007) and Clinical and Honorary Professor at the Universidad Autonoma (Madrid, Spain, 1991-2007), he moved to Sydney in 2007 to pursue his academic career. He has received further training in Bioethics (1997), Informed Consent (1997), and Protection of Human Research Subject (2005); in Management of Clinical Units (2000), Management of Clinical Processes (2006), and Clinical Leadership (2007-8), and he is University Expert on Advanced Methods in Applied Statistics (2005-6). He has been Board Member of the Spanish (1998-2006) and the European (2003-2009) Academies of Dermatology and Venereology. He was funding member and first convenor of the Spanish Dermatology Research Working Group (2006-7). He is member of the Maintenance Team of the IEC/EN 60335-2-27 Standard, Member of the WHO ICD11 Dermatology Topic Advisory Group, and Member of several Committees of the Australasian College of Dermatologists (Scientific Research, Scientific Advisory, Academic, and MBS Committees). He is member of the Editorial Board of Actas Dermosifiliograficas and Dermatovenerologie and reviewer for a number of Dermatology journals. Since he moved to Sydney in 2007, he participated in the development of the Department of Dermatology at Westmead Hospital, focusing in providing high quality dermatology care to public patients in Western Sydney. He was appointed Head of the Department in 2010, opened the Dermatology Comprehensive Clinical Centre in 2010 and the Dermatology Research and Clinical Trials Unit in 2012, both at Westmead Hospital. To progres studies in Oncodermatology, he is building strong links with the Westmead Cancer Care Centre and the Skin and Cancer Foundation Australia, opened the first Cutaneous Lymphoma Clinic and cutaneous Graft versus Host Disease Clinics in NSW, and he is participating in melanoma, cutaneous lymphoma, basal cell carcinoma, non-melanoma skin cancer, and actinic keratosis clinical trials. His teams at Westmead Hospital and at the Skin and Cancer Foundation Australia are progressing research projects in Merkel Cell Carcinoma, Mohs surgery, the Cutaneous Side Effectos of oncological medications, and Squamous Cell Carcinoma. His PhD was on adhesion and motility of keratinocytes (J Invest Dermatol 111: 19-24; 1998; J Invest Dermatol 114: 1126-1135; 2000). His thesis was awarded the Extraordinary Prize of the School of Medicine (Universidad Autonoma, Madrid, Spain) and the Doctorate Prize of the National Royal Academy of Medicine (Spain). He has worked in basic photobiology with melanocytes and dendritic cells (J Invest Dermatol 125:334-42; 2005). He has studied the possible photoprotective effect of a number of molecules in in vitro studies using keratinocytes, melanocytes, and dendritic cells in collaboration with private industry (Exp Dermatol 16:823-829; 2007). His interest in photobiology led him to join the Spanish Committee for the EU 60335-2-27 standard (Safety of household and similar electrical appliances: Particular requirements for appliances for skin exposure to ultraviolet and infrared radiation) in 2004, and was selected the Spanish representative in the Maintenance Team of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC/TC61/MT16) for this standard (IEC 60335-2-27) in the same year. During 2006-8, he was the convenor of the CENELEC/TC61 Ad Hoc Working Group EN 60335-2-27 that adapted the EU 60335-2-27 to the recommendations of the Scientific Committee of the EU (Actas Dermosifiliogr. 2008;99:429-30). A/Prof Pablo Fernandez-Peñas interest in Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD) commenced in 1995. He started as an investigator in the Research Project "Lymphocyte induced apoptosis of keratinocytes in inflammatory skin diseases: lichen planus and graft versus host disease" (1996-1998). In the following years, he published a number of original papers describing clinical findings of Acute GVHD (JEADV 17:550-553;2003; JEADV 20,602–634;2006; Arch Dermatol 142:1237-1238;2006; JEADV. 23:1398–1404;2009), Lichenoid chronic GVHD (Acta Derm Venereol (Stockh) 78: 386; 1998; Lupus 17(6): 591-5. 2008) and Sclerodermatoid chronic GVHD (Arch Dermatol 138: 924-934; 2002) and the role of rituximab (Bone Marrow Transplant 47:737-8; 2012) to treat chronic cutaneous GVHD. He has also published a review of the condition (Australas J Dermatol 51: 1-10; 2010) and the therapy (Am J Clin Dermatol 5: 403-416; 2004) including phototherapy (Australas J Dermatol 56:93-9, 2015) and a few case reports and case series (Int J Dermatol 51:1226-7, 2012; Australas J Dermatol 56:124-7, 2015; Australas J Dermatol, 2016, in press; JAMA dermatology, 2017, in press). A/Prof Pablo Fernandez-Peñas has been invited to give lectures on GVHD in national and international meetings. In 2005, he visited the Department of Dermatology at Harvard University (Boston, USA) and participated in several research studies on Merkel Cell Carcinoma (Arch Dermatol 142: 685-690; 2006, J Am Acad Dermatol 2008; 58: 375-381;J Invest Dermatol. 2009; 129(6): 1547-55). Another research interest of A/Prof Pablo Fernandez-Peñas is Quality of Life in Dermatology. Since 1998 (Int J Dermatol 39: 907-912; 2000), he has been working in the impact of dermatology conditions such as psoriasis or acne in the Quality of Life of patients (Med Clin (Barc) 118:5-9, 2002,J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 21:219-26, 2007,Dermatology 217(4): 309-14. 2008, Br J Dermatol 166:884-7, 2012) and recently skin cancer (Australas J Dermatol 56:70-6, 2015). This is an active research line in his department. Since he moved to Sydney in 2007, Pablo has focused in Oncodermatology. He is participating in melanoma, cutaneous lymphoma, basal cell carcinoma, non-melanoma skin cancer, and actinic keratosis clinical trials. His teams at Westmead Hospital and at the Skin and Cancer Foundation Australia are progressing research projects in Merkel Cell Carcinoma, Mohs surgery, the Cutaneous Side Effectos of oncological medications, and Squamous Cell Carcinoma. He has established an Oncodermatology Tissue Bank and a Proteomic platform. Recent publications include a number of papers on the cutaneous side effects of new treatments for metastatic melanoma (Br J Dermatol 167:1153-60;2012; Lancet Oncol 14:e11-8;2013; Br J Dermatol 169:1310-3, 2013; Am J Dermatopathol 36:493-7, 2014; Australas J Dermatol 55:250-4, 2014, JAMA dermatology 151:1103-9, 2015; J Am Acad Dermatol 72:809-15 e1, 2015; Br J Dermatol 172:239-43, 2015; J Am Acad Dermatol 74:455-61 e1, 2016; Am J Dermatopathol 36:192;2014; Melanoma Res 26:421-4, 2016; Melanoma Res 26:413-6, 2016), its mechanisms (Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 25:569-72;2012; Exp Dermatol 25:394-5, 2016; Am J Dermatopathol 39:23-7, 2017) and management (J Clin Oncol 30:e165-7;2012; Actas Dermosifiliogr 108:6-16, 2017). He has also explored other areas of oncodermatology: Mohs surgery (Dermatol Surg 42:633-8, 2016; Australas JDermatol, 2016 in press), photodynamic therapy (Australas J Dermatol 57:24-8, 2016; Australas J Dermatol 57:167-74, 2016) and the use of nicotinamide for skin cancer prevention (N Engl J Med 373:1618-26, 2015). His team is also interested in human behaviour related to skin cancer (Eur J Dermatol 24:85-93, 2014; J Cancer Educ, 2016; J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol, 2016; J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol, 2017). Hehas been invited to give lectures in national and international meetings. He has 120+ publications (h: 28, 3156 citations [Google Scholar]), participated in research projects with total grant funding of $1.6M, and has participated in 35+ clinical trials in oncodermatology [metastatic melanoma (BRAF and MEK inhibitors, anti PD1 molecules), basal cell carcinoma (heghehog inhibitor), squamous cell carcinoma (nicotinamide), actinic keratosis (photodynamic therapy, ingenol mebutate)] and inflammatory cutaneous diseases (psoriasis, hidradenitis, pyoderma gangrenosum).    

Research Interest

 His main fields of interest are immunology, onco-dermatology (including cutaneous lymphoma, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, and the cutaneous effects of graft versus host disease), quality of life in dermatology, and information technologies and codification