Abstract
Groundbreaking advances on the molecular and cellular physiological and physiopathological skin processes, including the complete sequencing of the genome of several species and the increased availability of gene-modified organisms, paved the way to firmly establishing molecular approaches and methods in experimental, translational, and clinical dermatology. As a result, newly developed experimental ex vivo assays and animal models prove exquisite tools for addressing fundamental physiological cutaneous processes and pathogenic mechanisms of skin diseases. A plethora of new findings that were generated using these experimental tools serve as a strong basis for intense translational research efforts aiming at developing new, specific, and sensitive diagnostic tests and efficient “personalized” therapies with less side-effects. Consequently, a broad array of molecular diagnostic tests and therapies for a wide spectrum of skin diseases ranging from genodermatoses through skin neoplasms, allergy, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, are already routinely used in the clinical dermatology practice. This article highlights several major developments in molecular experimental and clinical dermatology.
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Acknowledgments
This work of the authors is supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG HA 5663/1-1 and HA 5663/2 (C.H.), SI-1281/2-1 and SI-1281/4-1 (C.S.), from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme [FP7-2007-2013] under grant agreement No. HEALTH-F4-2011-282095 (C.S.), and from the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg (C.S.).
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Has, C., Sitaru, C. (2013). Molecular Dermatology Comes of Age. In: Has, C., Sitaru, C. (eds) Molecular Dermatology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 961. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-227-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-227-8_1
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