Congratulations to Dr Matthew Harries who, along with Dr Neki Meah, has been awarded a British Skin Foundation grant of £81,000 to support a research registry for alopecia areata (AA).
People with this common autoimmune condition, frequently suffer reduced quality of life and treatment is often unsuccessful.
The grant awarded to the researchers through The University of Manchester will fund the establishment of a UK registry which will be part of a global collaboration, GRASS-International (Global Registry of Alopecia areata disease Severity and treatment Safety).
Salford Royal, where Dr Harries is a Consultant Dermatologist, will be one of three pilot sites for the registry.
He said: “The current evidence-base for therapeutic decision making is poor. However, there is now growing interest from industry in AA treatment, predominantly through development of various Janus kinase inhibitors. Therefore comparative analysis of these emerging, high-cost drugs with existing therapies is needed to capture real-world data to assess post-marketing safety and effectiveness.”
Dr Harries is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester and a researcher within the Inflammatory Hair Diseases programme (Dermatology Theme), part of the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).