Two international teams of researchers have made significant gains in understanding the genetic basis of psoriasis, a chronic skin condition that can be debilitating in some patients. Their research, involving thousands of patients, is reported in two studies published this week in the advance online Nature Genetics.

New knowledge points to the fact that a genetically induced lack of filaggrin, a key protein of the skin barrier, plays a decisive role in the origin of allergies.

New study in the FASEB Journal shows how substances similar to THC are necessary for healthy skin and may lead to new skin disease treatments

Researchers from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have identified a promising new target for autoimmune disease treatment – a cell-surface receptor called DR3.

Physicians at the University of Minnesota and University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, Fairview have set the path to a cure for a young boy’s fatal genetic skin disease, recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), by using a cord blood and bone marrow transplant. Nate Liao, a 25-month-old from Clarksburg, N.J., underwent the experimental therapy in October 2007.

A potential diagnostic test that could help surgeons confirm or rule out the presence of infection-causing bacteria in prosthetic joints that require surgical revision has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Acne patients who are highly anxious about their skin condition say they are less likely to participate in sport or exercise, according to new research at the University of Bath.

A disfiguring skin disease has affected more than 200 children in southern Iraq in an outbreak that some health officials are blaming on the war's devastating effect on the nation's public health system.

A new study by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and colleagues in Norway suggests that the benefits of moderately increased exposure to sunlight - namely the production of vitamin D, which protects against the lethal effects of many forms of cancer and other diseases - may outweigh the risk of developing skin cancer in populations deficient in vitamin D.

Patients with severe psoriasis appear to have an increased risk of death compared with patients without the skin condition, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

New findings from researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues suggest why some people with kidney failure can develop a rare tightening and swelling of the skin and other organs, including the lungs and heart.

A team of dermatologists and dermatopathologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center has identified nine North Texas cases of an infectious skin disease common in South America, Mexico and in the Middle East, where it is sometimes referred to as a “Baghdad boil.”