Andrzej Antoni Dlugosz, MD

In 2008, Dr. Dlugosz was named Poth Professor of Cutaneous Oncology in the Dermatology Department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is Scientific Director of the Cutaneous Oncology Program of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his M.D. at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 1984, did an internship at the Roger Williams General Hospital in Providence, RI, and completed his dermatology residency, including a year as Chief Resident, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, in 1988. He received his post-doctoral training with Dr. Stuart Yuspa at the National Cancer Institute, where he subsequently established an independent research program prior to his recruitment to the University of Michigan in 1997.

Dr. Dlugosz has received multiple awards, grants, and fellowships from the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, American Association for Cancer Research, Society for Investigative Dermatology, and Dermatology Foundation. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2002, has been included in the Best Doctors in America listing since 2003, and was elected to the American Dermatological Association in 2005.

The National Institutes of Health and other scientific agencies frequently enlist Dr. Dlugosz as a grant reviewer. He is also an ad hoc reviewer for multiple scholarly journals, and is frequently invited to speak, or chair sessions, at major scientific meetings both in the United States and abroad. Dr. Dlugosz is an author on over 60 published papers.

Dr. Dlugosz's basic research program is centered on two interrelated areas. He is investigating how the abnormal regulation of an embryonic signaling pathway, called the Hedgehog pathway, causes tumor development in skin and several other organs. In other studies, he is investigating the role of the Hedgehog pathway in development, growth, and regeneration of hair follicles and related structures.

autoimmune blistering skin disorders, general dermatology, epithelial skin tumors.

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Embryonic signaling pathways and cancer development, molecular regulation of hair follicle growth and sebaceous gland development.

The long-term goal of the Dlugosz laboratory is to gain a better understanding of how embryonic signaling pathways control normal growth and development, and how deregulation of these pathways can lead to cancer. Much of the work is centered on the Hedgehog signaling pathway, which regulates a broad range of processes during embryogenesis. After birth, however, pathologic activation of Hedgehog signaling is involved in the formation of common human skin tumors called basal cell carcinomas, and may also contribute to the development of tumors arising in various internal organs, including the brain, lung, pancreas, stomach, esophagus, and prostate. A major focus of the laboratory is to understand how alterations in the Hedgehog pathway contribute to cancer formation and maintenance, and whether targeting this pathway could provide a means of treating Hedgehog-associated malignancies. In addition, another area of investigation is directed at studying how Hedgehog signaling controls embryonic and postnatal growth of hair follicles, and the development and maintenance of sebaceous oil glands and other skin appendages.

Dlugosz Lab: Skin Cancer Biology Research

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