Professor and Chair of the UMass Chan Medical School Department of Dermatology John Harris specializes in vitiligo — an autoimmune disease that causes loss of skin color in patches — and works closely with finding treatments for the disease.
He also founded and directs the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center, which is one of the only places in the nation that offers surgical procedures to treat vitiligo.
Harris is also the founding director of the Autoimmune Therapeutics Institute and has membership in multiple vitiligo societies, including the Vitiligo Working Group and the New England Dermatology Society. His blog, “Speaking of Vitiligo…,” offers his own commentary aimed at sharing his thoughts to others who are interested in the disease.
“Being able to do science and find new treatments that can affect millions of people over history, and then being able to train people who do those things, and then have that bigger reach and bigger effect,” Harris said. “That’s probably the most exciting thing that legacy leaves behind through people and their accomplishments as well.”
Undergraduate and M.D./Ph.D. years
Harris grew up on a small town farm and was the first of his brothers to finish college, but he was sure of his interest in science and math. For him, the natural path for him was to become a doctor, though he had little knowledge about the field itself.
He attended Gordon College, a small Christian college in Massachusetts, where he majored in biology with a pre-med concentration. It was during Harris’s undergraduate years that he was exposed to the world of research.
“I learned that research was another path that you could actually not just practice medicine, but you could change the practice of medicine by doing research in disease and then making discoveries,” Harris said.
Harris noted that he wanted to become a physician in order to be a “detective,” which meant making discoveries and being on the forefront of cutting edge treatments. So, he opted to pursue a combined M.D. Ph.D. degree at UMass Chan Medical School upon graduating from Gordon College.
According to Harris, the program consisted of two years of medical school classes, where he participated in clinical rotations during the summer. He completed a full course of Ph.D. research — with a few clinical rotations every now and then — which could take students anywhere between three to five years. Finally, he completed two more years of medical school.
During his Ph.D. education, Harris was initially interested in autoimmunity, and crafted his thesis surrounding the loss of autoimmune tolerance in juvenile diabetes. With multiple of his family members living with type I diabetes, he felt the disease was an important issue to address. His research focused on understanding how the immune system attacks its own tissues, particularly in the pancreas, an organ that is “deep down” in the body and is difficult to study.
However, Harris yearned to study the disease of people, and found frustration in the fact that most of his work was not performed on human models, but rather on cells and mice.
“I wanted easier access to the human tissues that are affected by autoimmunity,” Harris said. “I thought we could learn a lot more that way.”
Harris’s research mentor recommended that, if he were to stay in research and study autoimmunity through a humanistic approach, dermatology and rheumatology were both good options to consider.
Vitiligo specialization
One day, Harris’s mentor introduced him to a 20 year old woman with type I diabetes, who was suffering from multiple autoimmune diseases, including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, pernicious anemia and vitiligo. Out of her four devastating autoimmune diseases, Harris took interest in her vitiligo, believing that it was the most accessible to study.
“And so it was then that I said, well, I’m going to be a dermatologist,” Harris said. “I’m going to be a vitiligo expert, that’s what I’m going to do the rest of my life. And that’s what I did.”
Harris attended University of Pennsylvania for his dermatology residency, where he did a year of medical internship in general medicine. Then, he entered the Physician Scientist Training Program, where he completed two years of dermatology followed by two years of a postdoctoral fellowship.
Eventually, he moved to UMass Chan Medical School as a faculty member and started the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center. The center focuses on the clinical diagnosis and treatment of patients with vitiligo, as well as developing new treatments to treat the condition.
Three years ago, one of the research group’s discoveries allowed them to start a company called Polaris Therapeutics, where they are currently developing a new treatment for vitiligo, and they hope to enter human trials in the near future.
“We’re focusing on just one drug, but eventually the hope is that we’ll do clinical trials and eventually pharma will be able to take it on and do the larger trials and then sell the drug,” Harris added.
A large portion of Harris’s time is also dedicated to running a large research lab, staffed with 15 to 20 people who study both mouse models and patients to test new vitiligo treatments. He also became the chair of the UMass Chan Medical School Department of Dermatology, where he is currently tasked with administrative responsibilities, such as staffing and building up the program.
A ‘mosaic’ of life experiences
Reflecting on positive moments throughout the years, Harris recalls a number of different instances that were each small pieces that contributed to his career. Harris attributed seeing the 20 year old vitiligo patient as a very pivotal moment for his decision to pursue dermatology, but he noted that his initial introduction to research was also important.
“That allowed me to understand that there was this whole other path that wasn’t just medicine, but there was medicine plus research,” Harris said. “And then [in] high school, I remember classes — AP biology — just made me fall in love with bio and science, and that really made an impact.”
Additionally, Harris noted that the relationships formed with his mentors, mentees, family and friends have greatly enriched and informed the work he does on a daily basis.
“I gave a speech at my high school graduation, and my main point of that talk was that I’m not unique, I’m not different from everybody else,” Harris said. “Actually, I’m kind of a nice mix of everybody else.”
Harris noted that the pieces of the “mosaic” of his life come from different places, and the completed, colorful picture is unique. Harris added that his focus on vitiligo is something that no one else has done, but he is only able to do what he does because of the little pieces that comprise the overarching mosaic.
“All those pieces came together to make me something different than everybody, but overall, those relationships really are key to making me who I am,” Harris said.
Medicine, however, is a long time — a very intimidating process to people who do not like school, Harris said. Starting from first grade, he underwent a total of 28 years of education.
“But the learning process was fun the whole time,” Harris said. “It was always changing. And I was going deeper into what I was interested in, and so that was a long period. And it was definitely worth it.”
