Our skin was designed to protect us from external stimuli such as the sun, water and exogenous substances being both irritative, toxic or having the capacity to act as allergens/haptens. The skin can develop contact allergy to common substances found everywhere such as metals, perfumes, plants and substances created by man, for example acrylates, rubber and preservatives. The symptoms we see when being exposed are often similar: the skin develop an inflammatory reaction, often a dermatitis.

In my research I focus on different substances giving rise to contact allergy, what happens in the skin at exposure, how we best diagnose contact allergy and how we best prevent contact allergy and more important allergic contact dermatitis. In my research group we have also studied the systemic reactions that can be found when an individual with contact allergen meet their hapten systemically for example in implants such as stents.