Lisa C. Zaba

B.S., Stanford University
Dendritic Cells in Normal and Inflamed Human Skin
James G. Krueger

Lisa Zaba came to the laboratory almost at the end of medical school (at Weill Cornell Medical College) for what I thought was only a short research elective. Instead, the research she began intrigued her so much that she elected to join the M.D.-Ph.D. program and to obtain a Ph.D. degree in addition. As such, Lisa joins a long tradition at Rockefeller of physicians who have elected to obtain graduate degrees in research after completing medical training. Lisa’s work has been focused largely on dendritic cells in the skin, cells that are immune sentinels in the skin and that probably orchestrate cutaneous immunity to pathogens and other environmental agents.

Lisa’s work has been absolutely critical in defining how to identify these cells in the skin, and she has discovered critical properties of these cells in both healthy and in diseased skin, in which psoriasis has largely been used as a model of autoimmunity. Based on Lisa’s work, the work of many scientists will carry forward to discover how these cells function in protecting the skin against pathogens, how these cells will participate in other autoimmune diseases and how these cells may fight against cancer. Wisely, Lisa has chosen to continue her training in medicine and to specialize in diseases of the skin, in which the cells that she discovered are likely to play critical roles in orchestrating diseases of this important human organ. Lisa has been a leader as a biomedical fellow with publication of a significant array of important papers and I expect her to be a leader in academic dermatology in the future. Lisa, best of luck to you, although you do not need my blessing of luck for future success.