Allison Chelsa Billi, MD PhD

Dr. Allison Billi is an assistant professor in the University of Michigan Department of Dermatology. Her research aims to define how the skin contributes to systemic autoimmune disease through identifying female-biased pathways and factors in skin that are critical to autoimmunity. In addition, she provides medical dermatology care to patients of all ages within our outpatient clinic at Domino’s Farms.

Dr. Billi is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School where she received her medical degree and her PhD in Human Genetics. Following graduation, she completed her transitional year at Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn, Michigan, and a dermatology residency and post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Michigan Department of Dermatology.

University of Michigan Health participates with most health insurance plans.

Autoimmune disease affects roughly eight times as many women as men, and represents the leading cause of morbidity among women in the United States. Skin is one of the organs most commonly involved in autoimmune diseases, but the role of skin inflammation in driving these diseases remains largely unknown. We are investigating the biological mechanisms that lead to female sex bias in lupus. Our research is examining how the female-biased factor VGLL3 drives autoimmune disease in the skin of women and exploring whether this pathway could underlie the balance of female-biased autoimmunity and male-biased susceptibility to infection and neoplasm.