Dr. Douglas Grossman is currently Professor of Dermatology and Oncological Sciences, and Investigator in the Huntsman Cancer Institute, at the University of Utah. He received his MD/PhD training (1985-1994) at Baylor College of Medicine, and completed both medical internship (1994-1995) and dermatology residency (1995-1998) at Yale. During postdoctoral fellowship (1998-2000) with Dario Altieri, MD at Yale, Grossman was first to demonstrate that the recently discovered apoptosis inhibitor protein Survivin is upregulated in skin cancers, has anti-apoptotic function in vivo, and is required for melanoma cell survival. Since establishing his own laboratory in 2001, Grossman has investigated Survivin function in regulating apoptosis in cell-based models, and its role in the development of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer using transgenic mice with melanocyte- or keratinocyte-specific expression of Survivin. Using dominant-negative mutants, he demonstrated that Survivin can be targeted systemically to inhibit growth of melanoma tumor xenografts in mice. Current research efforts are directed towards understanding mechanisms through which Survivin promotes melanoma development and metastasis in mouse models. A second area of interest is investigating the role of oxidative stress in UV-induced melanoma in order to develop novel chemopreventive agents targeting this pathway for patients at increased risk for developing melanoma. Grossman’s clinical expertise relates to early melanoma detection, and he is also engaged in translational studies geared towards understanding the biology of melanocytic nevi, including growth and recurrence of dysplastic nevi and their transition to melanoma.