John Harris

Dr. Harris is the founding Director of the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center, founding director of the Autoimmune Therapeutics Institute, and Professor and Chair in the Department of Dermatology at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA. Dr. Harris directs the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at UMass Chan Medical School, which incorporates a specialty clinic for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with vitiligo, as well as a vitiligo research laboratory. He uses basic, translational, and clinical research approaches to better understand autoimmunity in vitiligo, with a particular focus on developing more effective treatments.

He earned his MD and PhD degrees at UMass Chan Medical School, and his PhD thesis was focused on the loss of autoimmune tolerance in juvenile diabetes. He entered a combined research/residency program in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, and his postdoctoral research focused on the development of a mouse model of vitiligo with epidermal depigmentation. He now advises multiple graduate students, MD/PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows in his research laboratory at UMass Chan, and teaches medical students and residents in his vitiligo clinic.

He has authored multiple research publications and textbook chapters on vitiligo and other topics and serves on a number of advisory boards and committees, including the Dermatology Foundation, Skin of Color Society, Vitiligo Working Group, Vitiligo Research Foundation, National Alopecia Areata Foundation, American Academy of Dermatology and the New England Dermatology Society, among others. He is an advisor and collaborator with multiple pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, Combe Inc, Genzyme/Sanofi, and Pfizer.

Dr. Harris is an ad hoc reviewer on grant applications for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dermatology Foundation, and National Alopecia Areata Foundation, as well as multiple research journals, including Science Translational Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research, Experimental Dermatology, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, JAMA Dermatology, and others. He receives generous grant support from the NIH, Dermatology Foundation, Kawaja Vitiligo Initiative, and the Vitiligo Research Foundation. He has lectured on vitiligo and other topics to local, regional, national, and international audiences.