The department of Dermatology is home to the Laboratory for Experimental Dermatology headed by Prof. dr. Ellen van den Bogaard. Ellen van den Bogaard studied biomedical sciences at the Radboud University (Nijmegen) and obtained her PhD in 2014 at the Dermatology department of the Radboudumc. She received a Cum Laude distinction for her dissertation: From skin development to disease pathogenesis: the power of 3D skin models. She heads the Laboratory for Experimental Dermatology at Department of Dermatology since 2018 and became a Principal Investigator affiliated to the Radboud Research Institute in 2020. In 2021 she was appointed as a full professor in Experimental and Translational Dermatology.

Her group studies skin biology and pathophysiology of inflammatory skin diseases with the aim is to translate findings in basic science to applications in diagnostics and treatment of human disease. Her research lines have a true translational character. Over the years, multiple 3D tissue engineered (organotpyic) skin disease models have been developed in her lab to study the interaction between epidermal keratinocytes, immune cells and the skin microbiome. The combination of these state-of-the-art culture models with advanced (next generation sequencing-based) methods enables the elucidation of disease mechanisms, identification of novel targets for drug development and the screening of potentially new dermatological therapies.

Ellen is vice-chair of the Radboud research and education participation council and the chair of the European Epidermal Barrier Research Network (E2BRN). She is consortium leader, workpackage leader and participant of multiple international projects since the start of her independent research career in 2015. Next to the academic research, the laboratory liase with industry and executes contract research for industrial partners using the human skin models developed in the laboratory.