The Board

Professor Catherine Harwood is a Consultant Dermatologist and Professor of Dermatology in the Centre for Cell Biology and Cutaneous Research, Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust.

She qualified in medicine from Cambridge University and St Thomas ‘ Hospital London. She trained in Dermatology at St George’s Hospital and Barts Health NHS Trust and obtained a PhD in skin cancer research from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). She was appointed as a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Dermatologist at Barts Health NHS Trust/QMUL in 2001. Her main clinical and research interests are related to skin cancer, particularly in immunosuppressed individuals.

Dr Louise Fearfield is a Consultant Dermatologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (CWH) with an interest in skin cancer and cutaneous oncology and currently deputy chair of BSSCII.

Since 2010 she has published papers on her work related to cutaneous toxicities associated with the newer therapies used in the treatment of cancer. Having become a national expert in this field she has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings winning several coveted awards for her research. With the new initiative of including skin toxicities associated with cancer treatments as part of the BSSCII remit she hopes to use her expertise to help expand the work of the group.

Dr Conal Perrett is a Consultant Dermatologist & Dermatological Surgeon at University College London Hospital (UCLH) where he led the skin cancer service and established both the Mohs micrographic surgery and photodynamic therapy (PDT) services. As a member of the London Sarcoma Service he looks after patients with cutaneous sarcoma and also has an interest in skin cancer in haemato-oncology patients. At Harefield and Royal Brompton NHS Trust, Dr Perrett runs a specialist clinic for heart and lung transplant patients who come from all over the UK with skin problems.

Previously he was awarded a prestigious Cancer Research UK (CR-UK) Clinical Research Fellowship working at their London Research Institute (now at the Francis Crick Institute), as well as the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science at Barts and The London and the St John’s Institute of Dermatology. For his research on skin cancer in organ transplant recipients he was awarded a PhD by the University of London. He has presented his work nationally and internationally and published in world class journals including Science. As an honorary associate clinical professor at University College London (UCL) he continues to supervise PhD students and has served as a final MB and PhD examiner for the University of London.

Dr Sinha is currently an appointed Consultant at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, working at both Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital and Lewisham University Hospital. Having completed a post-CCT Fellowship in skin cancer at the prestigious St John’s Institute of Dermatology, she works in several dedicated tertiary skin cancer clinics such as the Low Risk Melanoma, Mole surveillance clinic, High Risk Melanoma and Transplant Surveillance clinics. She has participated in rolling out a Teledermatology Service across the South-East London region and is currently both the Skin Cancer Lead at University Hospital Lewisham and the Co-Clinical Lead for Dermatology in the South East London Dermatology Network. Finally, Dr Sinha is Honorary Secretary for BSSCII, allowing her to promote improved patient management and medical and scientific research that is relevant for skin diseases in immunocompromised individuals including organ transplant recipients, those on long term immunosuppressive medications, haematological conditions and HIV infection, as well as addressing skin toxicities related to cancer treatments.

Tanya Basu is a Consultant Dermatologist at King’s College Hospital, with a specialist interest in Haemato-oncology. Tanya leads a dedicated, multidisciplinary clinic for patients with graft versus host disease; she also cares for patients with dermatological disorders related to underlying haematological disease in the in-patient and out-patient setting.

She started her career as a basic scientist, completing a BA Hons Degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge followed by a PhD Degree in molecular oncology and RAS oncogenes at Cancer Research UK. She went on to medical school at Imperial College School of Medicine at St Mary’s, and completed her Dermatology training at Chelsea and Westminster and King’s College Hospital, London.

Tanya has both a clinical and translational research role with a focus on the rare haematological/cutaneous malignancy Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic cell neoplasm and Graft versus Host Disease.

Charlotte Proby is Professor of Dermatology and Honorary NHS Consultant Dermatologist in the School of Medicine, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, University of Dundee. Her longstanding clinical and research interest in skin malignancies, especially cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), has focused on immunosuppressed patients, notably organ transplant recipients. Her current work aims to better understand the molecular drivers for cSCC progression and to promote an evidence base for novel and traditional treatments through clinical trials. She is committed to collaborative working through national and international initiatives to improve skin cancer treatment and prevention.

Charlotte Proby was Chair of BSSCII from 2010 to 2018 and has been a Board member since with participation in the email forum, the annual update and BAD conference meetings, consensus guidelines and research activities. She has been an active member of SCOPE (Skin Care in Organ transplant Patients Europe) for two decades and is also a regular UK representative at the ITSCC (International Transplant Skin Cancer Collaborative) Biennial meetings in Massachusetts, USA. Currently, her main endeavour is to deliver the UK Keratinocyte Cancer Collaborative (UKKCC) skin cancer ‘Atlas’ study (as CI), and to help deliver the HTA-funded Phase 3 randomised clinical trial ‘SCC-AFTER’ examining the benefit of adjuvant radiotherapy for high-risk cutaneous SCC, and the Cancer Research UK-funded ‘SPOT-IT’ Phase 3 with embedded Phase 2 RCT examining topical chemoprevention of cSCC in immunosuppressed patients.

Dr Abha Gulati is a UK-trained consultant dermatologist. She studied medicine at University College London. She has been practising dermatology since 2003 which has included training at a number of London’s teaching hospitals including Bart’s Health, Hammersmith & Ealing, Chelsea & Westminster and University College Hospitals. Since 2015, she has been a consultant dermatologist at Homerton Healthcare Foundation Trust, where she is the lead clinician for skin cancer services.

Her dermatology training included a PhD study at QMUL exploring the early changes in skin cancer development and impact of common treatments and a NIHR-funded Academic Clinical Lectureship at QMUL during which she explored ways of improving education and early recognition of skin cancers. She is also passionate about medical education, having been a MRCP examiner, Training Programme Director, lead for dermatology education at Homerton and RSM Trainees Committee Secretary during her career.

Dr Ferina Ismail is a Consultant Dermatologist at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust where she also leads the Transplant Dermatology service. The Royal Free Hospital is a major renal and liver transplant centre, and Dr Ismail runs a weekly skin surveillance clinic for organ transplant and other immunosuppressed patients with the support of a CNS, including a multidisciplinary joint clinic alongside the renal transplant team.

Ferina undertook her medical training at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, University of London, during which time she also obtained a first class honours BSc degree in genetics. She trained as a dermatologist at Barts and The London, The Royal Free and King’s College Hospitals in London, and during the course of her dermatology training was awarded a prestigious 3 year Medical Research Council clinical fellowship for which she completed a PhD in skin cancer at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute and Centre for Cutaneous Research, Barts and The London School of Medicine (January 2009).

She has presented her research at national and international skin cancer meetings and has several journal publications arising from her work. Ferina has written the Dermatology in Kidney Disease chapter for Practical Nephrology (Springer), which also includes a section on skin conditions in the renal transplant population. She is a founding board member of BSSCII and has been involved in developing its website.

Dr Fiona Child is a Consultant Dermatologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. She developed an interest in cutaneous lymphoma during her general dermatology training and went on to complete a period of academic research leading to the award of Doctor of Medicine (MD) for her thesis: ‘molecular studies in cutaneous B-cell lymphoma’.

She spent eight years as consultant dermatologist and clinical lead for skin cancer at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust before returning to the skin tumour unit at Guy’s and St Thomas’ in 2011.

Fiona is currently part of the team that provides a supraspecialist regional and national service for patients with cutaneous lymphoma. She also leads the regional service providing extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) for patients with chronic graft versus host disease.

Dr Rubeta Matin is an academic dermatologist with expertise in skin cancers and skin disease in the immunosuppressed. She currently holds the post of Consultant Dermatologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where she leads the specialist Transplant/Immunosuppressed clinic and provides dedicated skin expertise to leading Haematologists and Oncologists at Oxford.

She has a national reputation as a skin cancer leader and has published more than 100 high impact, peer-reviewed journal publications as well as being frequently invited to present nationally and internationally. She achieved a PhD in Molecular Mechanisms in Melanoma at the University of London in 2010. At Oxford, she is currently Dermatology Research Lead for Skin Cancer actively undertaking clinical research trials in skin cancer management. She is currently Chair of the Skin group in the Thames Valley Cancer Alliance Group.

Dr Bottomley is a consultant nephrologist at the Oxford Kidney and Transplant Unit, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, and is a clinician-scientist at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Oxford Institute (COI), University of Oxford. He has a particular interest in long-term complications seen after kidney transplant, including the development of skin cancer. His research group work on identifying new clinical and immunological biomarkers to assist risk stratification, as well as exploring changes in cell and signalling pathways underpinning the immune response to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) (Bottomley et al, J Am Soc Nephrol, 2016; Bottomley et al, Front Immunol, 2022; Ahuja et al, Nature Communications, 2023). He leads the spatial transcriptomic hub at the COI, utilising this novel approach to explore cell behaviour within tissue.

He is the Principal Investigator for the COAST Study, a multicentre cohort study to evaluate contemporary management and outcomes after first CSCC in kidney transplant recipients. He has previously published consensus recommendations regarding the management of organ transplant recipients with first CSCC (Bottomley et al, Transpl Int, 2022).

Professor Kieron Leslie is a professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He graduated from St. Bartholomew’s and The Royal London School of Medicine, and completed his general medical training at the Royal Free and University College hospitals in London. He completed his dermatology training in London and Norwich, UK. He is also a graduate of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he attained a Diploma of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (DTM&H).

Professor Leslie’s clinical and research focus is on skin diseases affecting those living with HIV. He is the director of the HIV dermatology services at UCSF Medical Center and San Francisco General Hospital. His publications include articles in the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet HIV. He is the Dermatology consultant for the ACTG Study: Tecovirimat For Human Monkeypox Virus (STOMP), and Chair for the World Health Organization’s Living Mpox Atlas workgroup.

Alan is Lead CNS in Dermatology Oncology at the London Skin Unit (the Royal Free Hospital London NHS Trust). He trained in the military and had a background in haematology, paediatrics and surgery.

Immunotherapy Nurse Consultant in Clatterbridge.

Farrah is a final year dermatology registrar at St John’s Institute of Dermatology in London. During her training she completed her PhD in the molecular genetics of Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma (CTCL) at Kings College London. Her clinical and academic interests lie in the development of novel treatments for skin cancers, in particular CTCL.

Dr. Doolan is a dermatology registrar and clinical research fellow, currently undertaking clinical and academic posts at St. John’s Institute of Dermatology. He has worked within the transplant, graft versus host and lymphoma clinic settings and has an interest in genetic skin diseases and treatment of skin toxicities associated with cancer therapies.

Mhairi is a final year Dermatology Registrar whose training has been based at King’s College Hospital, London, and St. John’s Institute of Dermatology. She is interested in the intersection of Haemato-oncology and Dermatology and plans to undertake research within this field. In addition, she has worked clinically in the cutaneous lymphoma, graft-versus host disease, and specialist melanoma clinic settings.

Emilia is a dermatology registrar at Barts Health NHS Trust and a HARP/Wellcome Trust PhD student. Her PhD project, supervised by Dr Jun Wang (Barts Cancer Institute) and Professor Catherine Harwood, aims to integrate digital pathology and gene expression profile data using multimodal deep learning to develop a prognostic tool for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in organ transplant recipients.