Aimee Payne, MD, PhD, has been named chair of the Department of Dermatology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and dermatologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/CUIMC and will begin her new roles on Dec. 4. She succeeds David Bickers, MD, the Carl Truman Nelson Professor and Chair of the Department of Dermatology at VP&S and director of the dermatology service at NYP/CUIMC who stepped down last July after 28 years in these leadership positions.
Payne is professor of dermatology and director of the Clinical Autoimmunity Center of Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and a highly respected physician-scientist whose clinical and research expertise focuses on mechanisms and treatments of autoimmunity. Her laboratory invented a targeted immunotherapy approach for antigen-specific B cell depletion known as chimeric autoantibody receptor T (CAAR-T) cells and performed key studies leading to FDA clearance of two Investigational New Drug applications for CAAR-T technology. These studies have enabled the first precision cellular immunotherapies for autoimmunity to enter clinical trials in mucosal pemphigus vulgaris and muscle-specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK) associated myasthenia gravis. The lab’s work was recognized with a Clinical Research Forum Achievement Award in 2017 and has been published in Science, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Nature Biotechnology.
Payne’s clinical practice focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with autoimmune blistering skin diseases, including pemphigus and pemphigoid. At Penn, she also serves as associate director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, faculty adviser for the Association of Women Student MD-PhDs, and co-chair of admissions for the dermatology research residency program. She is core director of the Penn Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Center, an NIH-funded initiative that helped launch the Penn Dermatology BioBank.
Beyond Penn, Payne is president-elect of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, has served as chair of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Board of Scientific Counselors, and is co-founder and co-chair of the scientific advisory board of Cabaletta Bio, a publicly traded biotechnology company that focuses on engineering cellular immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases.
She is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Dermatological Association and serves on the Medical Advisory Council of the International Pemphigus and Pemphigoid Foundation.
Payne received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University and is a graduate of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where she earned her MD and a PhD in molecular and cellular biology. She completed her dermatology residency and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
About Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons:
Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) is a clinical, research, and educational enterprise located on a campus in northern Manhattan. We are home to four professional colleges and schools that provide global leadership in scientific research, health and medical education, and patient care, including:
- Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
- College of Dental Medicine
- School of Nursing
- Mailman School of Public Health
Founded in 1767, Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons was the first school in the United States to award the MD degree and its legacy of innovation continues. In 2018, it became the first medical school in the nation to replace student loans with scholarships for all students who qualify for financial aid. At the heart of medical education is the 100,000-square-foot, 14-floor Vagelos Education Center with a simulation center, anatomy lab, and classroom and study spaces. Faculty are among the best-funded researchers in American medical schools, and for eight consecutive years, the college’s grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has outpaced growth of the NIH budget.
About Aimee Payne, MD, PhD:
Dr. Payne is a Professor of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Penn Clinical Autoimmunity Center of Excellence. Her research has focused on mechanisms and treatments of autoimmunity, including: 1) cloning and characterization of B cell repertoires to understand how autoimmunity occurs in the model autoantibody-mediated blistering disease pemphigus, which has discovered common features of the B cell response among patients; 2) cell biologic studies to identify mechanisms for loss of cell adhesion, which has identified the p38/MK2 axis and Stat3 as key regulators of desmosome adhesion in keratinocytes; and 3) patient-oriented research to improve therapy, which has led to a better understanding of B cell depletion strategies as well as novel strategies for targeted therapy of disease. Her laboratory invented chimeric autoantibody receptor (CAAR) T cell technology for antigen-specific B cell depletion, which is currently being evaluated in a first-in-human trial to evaluate whether a precision cellular immunotherapy approach can lead to lasting autoimmune disease remission. Dr. Payne received her BS in Biology from Stanford University and her MD/PhD from Washington University School of Medicine, followed by residency and postdoctoral fellowship training in Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of Penn, Dr. Payne serves as President-elect of the Society for Investigative Dermatology and is the co-founder and co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Board at Cabaletta Bio, focused on developing novel targeted cellular immunotherapies for B cell-mediated diseases. At Penn, Dr. Payne serves as Associate Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program and faculty advisor for the Association of Women Student MD-PhDs (AWSM), through which she enjoys interacting with the larger physician-scientist community.
Source:
News: https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/aimee-payne-appointed-chair-department-dermatology-0
Doctor: https://the-asci.org/controllers/asci/AsciProfileController.php?pid=501394