A subject with many points of contact

Protective cover, sensory organ and climate control for the body - with a total surface area of around 1.8 square metres, the skin is our largest organ. The functions of the skin can be as varied as its diseases. "I am fascinated by the versatility of dermatology," says Prof Dr Mario Fabri. The 47-year-old dermatologist has held the professorship for Dermatology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena since this semester and is Director of the Department of Skin Diseases at Jena University Hospital. "Diseases of the skin can be infections, autoimmune or oncological, and the skin is also affected by a number of illnesses that simultaneously affect other organs or organ systems. This means that dermatology has many points of contact with other disciplines."

One central point of contact is the skin's immune system. Mario Fabri's research focuses on how the skin defends itself against infectious agents or attempts to fight cancer cells. He primarily investigates the connection between immune and metabolic processes - for example, the role that the metabolism of amino acids plays in immune processes or how immune cells are regulated in infections with mycobacteria, such as tuberculosis. Tissue material donated by patients is usually used as an organ model. Mario Fabri also conducts research into autoimmune diseases of the skin, such as sarcoidosis.

Special emphasis on practical learning

At the clinic, Prof Fabri covers the entire breadth of the subject, with particular expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of skin infections, which account for around a quarter of all dermatological diseases. He also represents this focus in supra-regional specialist societies and body|committees. Mario Fabri has extensive teaching experience; in addition to medical students, he has also taught Master's students and on the Dentistry degree programme. He attaches particular importance to practical learning, i.e. teaching directly with patients.

Born in the Rhineland, he studied Medicine in Cologne, with stays abroad in Nice and Harvard. For his doctoral thesis, he worked on an infectious immunological topic. With a DFG scholarship, he interrupted his specialist training for a research stay and worked in Los Angeles on the immune response against bacterial skin infections. Mario Fabri then received funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to set up his own junior research group. He habilitated on the immune response of the skin in infections and was appointed as a professor at the University and University Hospital of Cologne. He was also a visiting professor at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and most recently worked as deputy clinic director at the University Hospital of Cologne.

In a current research project, which is funded by the VW Foundation and which he will continue in Jena, he and his research group|working group|study group|task force are investigating the metabolism of immune cells in white skin cancer. This term is used to describe a whole group of malignant skin diseases for which there are only limited treatment options in the advanced stages. The project analyses the role of immune cell metabolism in the development and progression of skin cancer. Mario Fabri: "The aim of our research is to gain a better understanding of the immune system as a whole and thus open up new dermatological therapeutic approaches both for the targeted promotion of immune processes in cancer or infections and for the inhibition of mechanisms in autoimmune diseases."