Dermatological research in the 21st century: Our fantastic future

During the second half of the twentieth century, dermatology came of age. just as clinical dermatology, through new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, matured to a point where the dermatologist could affect peoples' lives profoundly, so too did dermatological research enhance our understanding of skin diseases enormously. Dermatology should not be viewed as a scientific discipline-advances come from fundamental scientific areas such as cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, technology, the clinical sciences and others. Thus, dermatology and skin biology live within a universe of science, only a small part of which is dermatology and skin biology, and our patients and our science are dependent on integration and interdigitation with the universe of science for future success. In this lecture I will elaborate on where I think the next 10-20 years will take us in this universe.