Anders Vahlquist – Looking Back on 45 Years of Research Activity
the bene?t of students. These and many other administrative
tasks inevitably took time from my research. Luckily Hans
Törmä also moved to Linköping for a couple of years and was
instrumental in starting a new research laboratory, with Eva
Andersson as technician. Later, Dr Inger Rosdahl, a melanoma
specialist from Gothenburg, also joined our research group and
eventually became my successor in Linköping.
Fig. 2. Porcupine man syndrome: Before and after 3 monhts of high-dose
oral vitamin A. From Lodin A, et al., Acta Derm Venereol 1966;46:412422. This patient was still treated with retinoids when seen in Linköping.
in 1988.
While sur?ng on a worldwide interest in retinoids both as
dermatotherapies and as hormone-like factors controlling
some aspects of epithelia differentiation via binding to the
nuclear receptors RAR/RXR, we naturally became experts in
using retinoids to treat especially severe monogenetic disorders of keratinisation, such as congenital ichthyosis. Hence
patients with these rare diseases were increasingly referred to
us for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
This interest continued when I was appointed Professor of
Dermatology and Venereology at Linköping University in
1987. However, because of the emerging chlamydia and HIV/
AIDS epidemics, my ?rst task as Head of the department was
to successfully ?ght for an increased budget for venereology.
Teaching was another imminent task; Dr Chris Anderson had
already prepared for a new problem-based curriculum in dermatology and working side-by-side with all colleagues at the
department we enthusiastically launched these new ideas to
Fig. 3. Wearing wrong type of clothing when awarded the Marchionini
Price at the opening of the WCD in Tokyo 1982 in front of old professors
and members of the imperial family (black suit is compulsary!)
Forum for Nord Derm Ven 2013, Vol. 18, No. 4
Back in Uppsala in 1997, after my interest in molecular genetics had been spurred by a sabbatical year in Newcastle-onTyne learning new techniques in Professor Jonathan Rees’s
lab, a national referral Centre for Genodermatoses was started,
involving the PhD students Marie Virtanen, Maritta Pigg and
Agneta Gånemo, which is still in operation. Meanwhile, the
aetiologies of a large number of monogenetic disorders of
keratinisation and mechano-bullous diseases were unravelled,
making it increasingly possible – via national and international
collaborations (e.g. the GeneSkin EU project) – to correctly
diagnose a whole range of skin disorders and to start looking
for new, improved therapies. This research, facilitated by our
increased understanding of the pathophysiology of skin barrier repair, has involved many more PhD students and is now
lead by Hans Törmä as principal investigator.
In summary, over the years research activities have given me
the advantage to go back and forth between patients and the
lab bench, to work with colleagues in virtually all disciplines,
and to follow PhD students from start to dissertation and
beyond. I have also made many good friends at home and
abroad, all devoted to the progress of our speciality and usually
being members of societies such as ESDR, SID, EADV, AAD,
EDF, and the Editorial Board of Acta Dermato-Venereologica!
Finally, I’ve had the great privilige of always working together
with my wife (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4. No more working together in the clinic! Ever since 1976, Drs Carin and Anders Vahlquist have been working in the same departments.
Now both are retired.
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