Pedram Gerami MD

As a clinical dermatologist, dermatopathologist and researcher focused in the care of melanoma patients and melanoma research I am uniquely positioned to study melanoma skin cancer from a variety of vantage points.   During my clinic time, I am focused in the care of patients with pigmented lesions and melanoma and as a dermatopathologist I am focused on the interpretation of melanocytic neoplasms.  This has allowed me to have significant insight in developing research questions and hypothesies for my research.  As a clinician and pathologist dealing with melanoma patients, I have often been struck by the level of uncertainty that melanoma patients deal with regarding their prognosis and the difficulty in counseling patients when this uncertainty exists. Hence from early on in my career, I hoped to try and identify ways beyond our conventional methods of microscopy to provide more accurate diagnostic and prognostic information for melanoma patients. From a research perspective I have focused on developing molecular diagnostic tools to help better predict prognosis in histologically ambiguous tumors and to develop better biomarkers in conventional melanomas as well.  At Northwestern we are an international leader in utilizing molecular diagnostics for the evaluation of melanomas and intermediate grade melanocytic tumors.