Louis D. Falo, Jr., MD, PhD

Dr. Louis Falo is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Falo is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, where he earned both his MD and PhD degrees with a research interest in skin immunology. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, a dermatology residency through the Harvard Combined Dermatology Program, and a fellowship in cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Before coming to the University of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, he was a member of the Harvard faculty and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In addition to the Department of Dermatology and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Falo has faculty appointments at the Professor level in the Department of Bioengineering of the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, the University of Pittsburgh UPMC Hillman Cancer Institute, and the Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute.  He has considerable and diverse scientific expertise. His research program brings together investigators with diverse expertise in a multidisciplinary program that has a history of productive research in cutaneous immunobiology, tumor immunotherapy, vaccine design, dendritic cell biology, molecular immunobiology and immunotherapy, bioengineering and drug delivery, and clinical trial design and implementation. Most recently, Dr. Falo has been focusing on the development of a vaccine for COVID-19. For more information on this research, please click here. Dr. Falo has been continuously funded by the NIH for over 20 years, including leadership roles in multidisciplinary P50 and P01 programs, and has published in reputable peer-reviewed journals including Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, Immunity, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, PNAS, Blood, Cancer Research, Journal of Virology, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, the Journal of Immunology, and the British Journal of Dermatology. His leadership in investigative dermatology has been recognized by his election to membership in the both the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Falo has a number of leadership and administrative roles within the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC, and serves as Chairman of the Department of Dermatology, University of Pittsburgh/UPMC, a position he has held since 2000. During that period the Department’s clinical and research programs have continuously grown in size and productivity.  The Department is currently ranked 4th of U.S. Dermatology Departments in NIH funding. Clinically, Dr. Falo is the Director of the Occupational and Contact Dermatitis Program, maintains an avid interest in the development of therapies for melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, and is currently participating in investigator initiated clinical trials of novel immune therapies for skin cancers. Dr. Falo is a three-time winner of the University of Pittsburgh Innovator Award, inventor of several patented discoveries, and Co-Founder of SkinJect, Inc., a company focusing on the development of novel therapies for skin cancer.  He participates extensively in peer review, serving on numerous NIH and private sector study sections and review boards, assuring that he is very well informed with regard to current and future NIH goals, initiatives, and funding priorities. View a list of Dr. Falo’s publications here.