Four Questions with Katerina Patsatsi, MD, MSc, PHD

Our Spotlight section features a medical professional whose work regularly impacts the lives of pemphigus and pemphigoid (P/P) patients. Get to know a new physician, researcher, or other medical professional who knows these diseases best. This issue, we’re featuring Katerina Patsatsi, MD, MSc, PhD.

Dr. Patsatsi is a Professor of Dermatology and Venereology at the Aristotle University School of Medicine, in Thessaloniki, Greece. She oversees the Autoimmune Skin/Bullous Diseases Unit and the Cutaneous Lymphoma Unit of the second Dermatology Department/Aristotle University School of Medicine and the Center of Expertise on Autoimmune Bullous Diseases, located at Papageorgiou General Hospital. Dr. Patsatsi was a fellow in Dermatopathology in Dermatologikum, Hamburg, and at the Ackerman Academy of Dermatopathology in New York. She was also a visiting scholar in the Autoimmune Skin Diseases Unit and in the Cutaneous Lymphoma Unit at the Department of Dermatology of the University of Pennsylvania. Her MSc was on Medical Research Methodology and her PhD on the diagnostic procedures of bullous pemphigoid.

She is the current co-chair of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Task Force on Autoimmune Bullous Diseases. She has recently initiated the formation of the Greek Bullous Diseases Study Group. Her main research fields include autoimmune bullous diseases, autoimmune skin diseases, cutaneous lymphomas, and inflammatory dermatoses (psoriasis, atopic dermatitis). She has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles in peer-reviewed journals. She has participated as a principal investigator, as well as a sub-investigator in numerous clinical trials. She has also participated as a co-author in books published in English and Greek literature, and she has lectured at many international and national meetings.

How did you become interested in researching pemphigus and pemphigoid (P/P)?

Twenty years ago, when I was asked to choose the topic of my PhD thesis, I decided to study new diagnostic methods for bullous pemphigoid (BP). For this research I was awarded a scholarship by the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY). At that time, we did not use any serological methods to follow the titer of BP autoantibodies and I was very excited to try new methods in sera and in blister fluid in elderly patients with BP.

What do you think the IPPF community should be researching?

I think that the unmet need requires the development of new treatments. The authorities must be convinced that it is of crucial importance to find new molecules acting as monotherapy or additional to lower doses of systemic steroids.

What can patients do to get more involved in research?

Patients should be continuously informed and realize that getting involved in clinical trials is the way to help science, the IPPF community, and themselves in the ongoing research on targeted treatments.

What is one fun fact about yourself?

I never lose my positive mindset and my smile, even in difficult situations.