In the News – Interview with Dr. Christiano in NY Times

Snippet from the New York Times article:

Angela Christiano, 45, an associate professor of dermatology and genetics at Columbia University Medical Center, studies hair. Last summer, she announced the discovery of the genes implicated in alopecia areata, the hair-loss disease that she herself suffers from. The interviewer spoke for two hours in her Washington Heights laboratory and then later on the telephone. An edited version of the two conversations follows.

Q. When did you first learn that you had alopecia?

A. In 1995, a time of big transitions in my life. After doing highly successful postdoctoral research on genetic blistering skin diseases at Jefferson Medical College, I’d arrived here at Columbia to start my own laboratory. I had just turned 30. I was getting a divorce. When you start your first lab, a researcher is expected to find something different from their postdoc work. For my first six months here, I sat thinking, “What am I going to do when I grow up?”

Read the full interview [login required] — Living and Studying Alopecia

Dr. Christiano is among the top doctors in her field, and her advances made in the understanding of alopecia areata (and thus future treatments) are to be applauded. I particularly admire her, because she is a person who identified a problem and made the decision to understand it as thoroughly as anyone.

The NY Times article may require you to login (it’s free to create an account), but it’s a good read for anyone interested in Dr. Christiano’s story.