Alice Bendix Gottlieb, MD PhD
Chair and Dermatologist in Chief
Harvey B Ansell Professor of Dermatology
Tufts Medical Center and
Tufts UniversitySchool of Medicine
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Dr. Gottlieb is an internationally recognized expert and leader in the field of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. In March, 2006, she joined Tufts Medical Center as its Chair of Dermatology and Dermatologist-in-Chief of the hospital, and as the Harvey B. Ansell Professor of Dermatology at Tufts University School of Medicine.  She is the former Professor of Medicine and Founding Director of the Psoriasis Center of Excellence at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Her research using targeted immunobiologics as pathogenic probes, provided new understanding of the pathogenesis of psoriasis and provided the foundation for biologic drug development in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.  Her translational research provided the first double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of the efficacy of TNF blockers as monotherapy for moderate to severe psoriasis (published in Lancet in 2001).  This work led to multiple TNF blockers being FDA-approved for psoriasis.  TNF blockers have revolutionized the care of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis patients.  She has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles that have appeared in journals such as The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature: Drug Discovery, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Archives of Dermatology, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and Journal of Investigative Dermatology. She has presented her research at more than 200 dermatology and rheumatology conferences in Europe, Asia and the United States, as well as at the FDA and the National Academy of Sciences. She is on almost every list of outstanding doctors, including Best Doctors in America and Best Doctors in Boston.  She is triple boarded in dermatology, rheumatology and internal medicine, and is one of only a handful of doctors in the United States to be certified in all three of these specialties.  Dr. Gottlieb has received numerous awards for mentoring and teaching including Excellence in Teaching Award from the Department of Dermatology at Tufts University Medical School/Tufts Medical Center, Honorary Membership in Alpha Omega Alpha in recognition of medical student teaching, a Research Mentorship award from the Internal Medicine house staff and a Mentorship Award from the American Chemical Society for mentoring minority high school students in bench and clinical research. Dr. Gottlieb was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Dermatology for 2011-2015. Dr.  Gottlieb is a member of the American Dermatological Association and Noah Worcester Dermatology Society amongst other professional societies.

She was one of the first scientists to demonstrate that psoriasis is a T cell mediated disease.  She initially demonstrated increased numbers of activated T cells and increased expression of a number of immunologic cytokines in psoriatic plaques (reported in multiple publications, e.g., the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).  She then showed that treatment with a T cell-specific immunotoxin cleared psoriasis clinically and histologically (published in Nature Medicine and noted in commentary in The Lancet).  Dr. Gottlieb, through her published studies and public presentations, has convinced a number of pharmaceutical companies to use psoriasis as their proof-of-concept disease when testing new immunomodulators that may decrease T cell and dendritic cell  cytokine production.  Thus, her work has affected drug development in psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and transplantation.  As a direct result of Dr. Gottlieb’s work, many biotechnology-engineered immunomodulators are FDA and /or EMEA-approved for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.  In 2001, she received the American Skin Association’s Psoriasis Research Award in recognition of her work.  In 2006, she received the Honorary Fellowship Award of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology.  Currently, Dr. Gottlieb’s research centers on developing new treatments for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, developing better outcome measures for psoriasis and on understanding the mechanisms of action of these novel agents.  Additionally, she is working on initiatives to prevent psoriatic arthritis and the consequences of the metabolic syndrome that is associated with psoriasis.

Dr. Gottlieb obtained her MD from Cornell Medical School and her PhD in Immunology from the Rockefeller University, where she studied in the laboratory of Henry Kunkel and was one of the first females admitted to Rockefeller University’s joint MD-PhD program. She has also been a leading educator in her specialties, and has been on the forefront of mentoring female and minority students and overseeing community outreach and patient advocacy programs. She is active in the autoimmune disease community as a councilor of the International Psoriasis Council and a member of the Steering Committee of GRAPPA (an international psoriatic arthritis coalition), Medical Advisory Board member and Co-Editor of the Psoriasis Forum, the physicians’ newsletter of the National Psoriasis Foundation.  She is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Dermatology.