VAC 2027

Keynote speakers

Beth Drolet

Professor and Geneva F. & Sture Johnson, Distinguished Chair of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA

 

Dr. Beth Drolet is a Professor of Dermatology and Pediatrics and Geneva F. & Sture Johnson Professor, Distinguished Chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, School of Medicine and Public Health. She is a board-certified dermatologist, and a fellowship trained pediatric dermatologist. Dr. Drolet is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, Stritch School of Medicine and completed her Residency as well as a Pediatric Dermatology Fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Drolet has a special interest in birthmarks and infantile hemangiomas and has created a collaborative research team to improve management of infants with hemangiomas and vascular anomalies. Her team has led several national initiatives to better define high risk vascular lesions and determine the best and safest treatment plans for these conditions. She has published over 200 manuscripts, and her research focuses on birthmarks and rare vascular anomalies. Her team uses next-generation sequencing to identify genetic causes of vascular anomalies and is leveraging these discoveries to develop breakthrough medications that target the disease at its source. Her team is also leveraging artificial intelligence to build algorithms for the diagnosis of birthmarks.

Claire Shovlin

Professor of Practice (Clinical and Molecular Medicine) at Imperial College, UK

Claire Shovlin is Professor of Practice (Clinical and Molecular Medicine) at Imperial College London; co-lead of NIHR Imperial BRC’s them on Social, Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Health; Past Chair of the European Reference Network on Rare Multisystemic Vascular Diseases (VASCERN) HHT, and founder/chair of NHS Rare Disease Collaborative Networks for pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs), and hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). Her discovery research focuses on the interplay between rare DNA variants and acute stresses, resulting in new paradigms for disease states shaped by our diverse genetic repertories, life-course exposures and gene-environment interactions (see Am J Hum Genet 2023 (PMID:37816352); Blood 2024 (PMID:40225928); Cell Stress 2024 (PMID:39628848); Am J Hum Genet 2025 (PMID:39753117) and QJM 2026 in press). Her current goals are to integrate new mechanistic understanding with evidence from real-world longitudinal data of patients and their cells to deliver medical approaches that will improve health across multiple vascular conditions.

TBC

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

Bio