Pablo Fernandez Penas

Pablo Fernandez Penas is Professor in Dermatology at Sydney Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, and Senior Medical Practitioner (Academic) at Westmead Hospital. Holding MD, PhD, and FACD qualifications, he leads the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Group at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research. His career includes Joint-Head of the Discipline of Dermatology at Sydney Medical School since 2019, NSW Lead for the ACRF Australian Centre of Excellence in Melanoma Imaging and Diagnosis since 2019, Director of the Centre for Translational Skin Research since 2018, Professor in Dermatology at Sydney Medical School since 2018, Head of the Department of Dermatology at Western Sydney Local Health District since 2009, and Faculty Member at Westmead Institute for Medical Research since 2019. He established the Dermatology Comprehensive Clinical Centre addressing severe skin conditions and initiated the Dermatology Clinical Trials and Research Unit, engaging in over 50 trials on melanoma, skin cancer, lymphoma, hidradenitis suppurativa, and psoriasis.

Professor Fernandez Penas's research focuses on proteomics as biomarkers for diagnosis and classification of skin conditions, clinical and translational research in melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, cutaneous lymphoma, oncodermatology, graft-versus-host disease, quality of life and utilities in dermatology, information technologies including teledermatology, digital imaging, and 3D full body photography, and identification of targets for CAR-T cell therapy in skin cancers. He has 187 publications, an h-index of 33, and 4,534 citations. Key publications include "Cutaneous toxicities of RAF inhibitors" (Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2016), "Quality of life in non-melanoma skin cancer" (Australasian Journal of Dermatology, 2015), "Nicotinamide for Skin-Cancer Chemoprevention in Transplant Recipients," and "Long-term cost-effectiveness of a melanoma prevention program using genomic risk information compared with standard prevention advice in Australia." His contributions have earned awards such as the 2022 Belisario Award for Academic Dermatology, 2021 and 2018 Presidential Citations from the Australasian College of Dermatologists, 2016 Order of Civil Merit (Officer’s Cross) awarded by the King of Spain, and recognition for the ACEMID initiative with a Shaping Australia award.

Professional Email: pablo.fernandezpenas@sydney.edu.au