James G. Krueger

James G, Krueger, MD, PhD, is head of the laboratory for investigative dermatology at the Rockefeller University. He also serves as a physician, codirector of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at the Rockefeller University Hospital, and Chief Executive Officer of the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City.

Dr. Krueger earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a PhD in virology and cell biology from the Rockefeller University. He received an MD from Cornell University Medical College, where he also completed an internship in internal medicine and residency in dermatology. Dr. Krueger is certified by the American Board of Dermatology.

His research group at Rockefeller was the first to conduct clinical trials with specific, targeted immune antagonists in psoriasis, and this work established that elimination of pathogenic T cells from skin lesions could reverse the full pathological phenotype of psoriasis. This work changed the disease model for psoriasis from that of a keratinocyte-driven disease to one of T-cell–mediated pathology. Since then, his group has used immune-based therapeutics to dissect inflammatory pathways in psoriasis and to conduct parallel biomarker studies that define mechanisms of targeted therapeutics in human populations. His group discovered elevated expression of IL-23 in psoriasis lesions and the contribution of this cytokine to an inflammatory axis dominated by Th17 T-cells was first reported by his group. This work has also provided the “disease maps” for cytokine-driven inflammation in psoriasis, which has been the basis for biologic therapeutic development in psoriasis. The successful development of antagonists to IL-12/23, IL-23/IL-39, and IL-17 (at least 10 different drugs) extends from this research and early clinical trials conducted by his group.

In a larger way, the approach taken in psoriasis has greatly altered a traditional pathway of scientific discovery that is based on establishing a disease model in animals or cell culture. The model of bedside-to-bench translational science in psoriasis has now been successfully extended to other inflammatory diseases, such as atopic dermatitis, alopecia areata, and others, that are extremely active with translational studies in humans and are highly dependent on cytokine-related disease maps from clinical samples of their respective diseases. His group is now actively working on creating disease maps, biomarkers, and new therapeutics for hidradenitis suppurativa.

Dr. Krueger has more than 400 scientific publications, most in high-impact journals. And he has been honored for his scientific and clinical contributions by election to the Association of American Physicians.