Dr. Clarisse Ganier and Dr. Michael Cangkrama will each receive $20,000 grants to further their contributions in skin disease research.

Mary Kay Inc. and European Society for Dermatological Research announced their inaugural Mary Kay Skin Health/Skin Disease Research Grant awardees.

The $20,000 grants were to be awarded to two researchers working to uncover new perspectives and invention strategies. 

The two grant awardees are:

• Dr. Michael Cangkrama, (Switzerland) Senior Scientist, Department of Biology, Institute of Molecular Health Sciences, ETH Zürich – Dr. Cangkrama is working on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of epithelial skin cancers, the most common types of cancer in humans. His research projects will focus on investigating molecular mechanisms of squamous cancer development and the role of the tumor microenvironment using state-of-the-art approaches. He will utilize the grant to further develop his independent projects and continue to pursue positions as an independent group leader or Assistant Professor in Europe.

• Dr. Clarisse Ganier, (United Kingdom), Research Associate at the Center of Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine in King’s College London. Dr. Ganier is part of the Human Cell Atlas initiative – an international collaborative effort to map all cell types within the human body – to generate a comprehensive Skin Cell Atlas. As part of this work, they have created a multi-scale spatial atlas of healthy skin and basal cell carcinoma (BCC), incorporating single cell transcriptomics, in vivo optical coherence tomography, spatial global transcriptional profiling and in situ sequencing. Funding for this research will allow her to pursue her professional goals of starting her own laboratory focusing on skin cancer biology by combining multiomics data, both in vitro and ex vivo.

“Mary Kay is dedicated to advancing skin and nutritional health research globally, and we know this cannot be done alone. Collaboration across industries, academic institutions, and clinicians is critical, which is why we are proud to partner with ESDR to furnish the first-ever Mary Kay-ESDR Skin Health/Skin Disease Research Grants,” says Dr. Lucy Gildea, Chief Innovation Officer, Product and Science at Mary Kay, in a news release. “These grants bring this larger community together for new inspiration for the future, and Mary Kay is proud to be a part of this opportunity. We are excited to see how these recipients bring greater advancements to different aspects of skin health research.”

“On behalf of the ESDR board, we would like to thank Mary Kay for its support of the ESDR and congratulate this year’s grant recipients for their tremendous contributions to their respective fields. A key objective of our Society is to promote innovative research in investigative dermatology and to support researchers' activities in translational skin research,” adds Eli Sprecher, Chair, Scientific Program Committee of ESDR.

The sponsorship and grants were announced prior to the International Societies for Investigative Dermatology Conference in Tokyo.