Sara Brown

Biography

Professor Sara Brown graduated with Honours in Medicine & Surgery from the University of Edinburgh and gained her specialist training in Dermatology in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Sara obtained an MD in Human Genetics with commendation in 2008 for her research looking at the role of filaggrin null mutations in a population-based cohort study, working with Nick Reynolds, John Burn and Heather Cordell. Sara was awarded a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship in 2009 and spent 10 months as a Post-CCT Fellow in Paediatric Dermatology in Dublin, Ireland, with Alan Irvine & Rosemarie Watson. Sara moved to Dundee in October 2009, working within Irwin McLean’s laboratory and as a clinical collaborator in ‘DGEM’, the Wellcome Trust-funded Centre for Dermatology & Genetic Medicine. Sara has now established her own laboratory, based in the Medical Research Institute within Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee. In May 2015 Sara became the first UK dermatologist to be awarded a prestigious Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship in Clinical Science and in October 2015 she was given a personal chair of Molecular and Genetic Dermatology.

Research Interest

Genetic mechanisms in atopic eczema Atopic eczema is an itchy inflammatory skin disease, which has increased in prevalence over recent decades. It is a complex trait, arising from the interaction of multiple genetic and environmental factors, but eczema is highly heritable, demonstrating the importance of genetic predisposition. Multiple risk loci have been identified by genomewide association studies, but a locus on chromosome 1q21 shows the strongest association. Within this locus, loss-of-function mutations in the gene encoding the skin barrier protein filaggrin (FLG) are well known to increase risk of atopic eczema. Sara’s work, in collaboration with Irwin McLean and Alan Irvine, has contributed to defining the role of FLG in every step of the ‘atopic march’, including mild, moderate and severe eczema, atopic asthma, allergic rhinitis and peanut allergy. Her work has shown that copy number variation within FLG has a dose-dependent effect on eczema risk, indicating that treatments aimed at increasing filaggrin expression may be of therapeutic benefit. Sara was the first to apply single molecule RNA sequencing for detailed analysis of atopic skin. Detailed analysis, performed in collaboration with the Data Analysis Group, University of Dundee, has highlighted an increased stress response in filaggrin-deficient skin and dysregulation of lipid networks in FLG wild type skin. Sara has also contributed to major international collaborative work on genome-wide analysis in eczema, within the EAGLE consortium, and in collaboration with Heather Cordell (Newcastle University). In her current work, Sara will use next generation sequencing to investigate copy number variation in genes related to FLG. She is also developing organotypic skin culture to test the role of candidate genes/transcripts for which functional mechanisms are currently unknown. This will move towards identifying targets for much-needed therapy development. Sara’s personal grant income has totalled over £2.4 million in the last 6 years and she is grateful to acknowledge the support of the Wellcome Trust, the Manknell Charitable Trust and the Tayside Dermatological Research Charity.