Professor Sarah Hedtrich

Professor Sarah Hedtrich obtained her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany in 2009. During her Post-doctoral studies, she moved to the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and Tufts University in Boston, USA. She was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Freie University of Berlin, Germany, in 2015 and relocated her lab to the University of British Columbia in 2019. Currently, she holds one of the prestigious Johanna-Quandt-Professorships at the Berlin Institute of Health @ Charité in Berlin, Germany, and is an Affiliate Professor at UBC.

Her research centers around inflammatory and genetic diseases of human epithelia with a focus on skin and lungs and bioengineering of complex, human disease models which are leveraged to develop personalised next-generation therapies.

Dr. Hedtrich’s lab are currently working on gene-editing techniques for the Congenital Ichthyoses, and she plans to extent her experiences with Lamellar Ichthyosis to new research with Epidermolytic Ichthyosis this year.

Please read this very informative interview with Dr Hedtrich about the challenges associated with gene-editing therapies for skin diseases here.