Read more about the center, which welcomes patients seeking relief from chronic, unexplained itch as well as itch associated with inflammatory skin diseases, in the latest issue of “CATALYST.”
Photo: Shawn Kwatra, MD. Photo courtesy of the School of Medicine
When Denise Thomma was 51 and entering menopause, she developed itchy bumps on her legs that spread to her shoulders, back, and arms over the course of a year. Initially, the bumps were just itchy. But with time, the “rash” became painful, bloody sores.
“I didn’t wear nice clothes; it hurt to be touched,” said Thomma, who, as a teacher of young children, said not being able to accept hugs was particularly difficult. She always wore long sleeves so the sores wouldn’t frighten her students.
“When I showered, I sobbed,” she recalled. “It actually hurt when water hit my skin. … I didn’t want to be touched anywhere by anyone.”
Imagine an itch you just cannot seem to scratch. It is a symptom so profound it keeps you up at night and causes you to call out sick to work. As a dermatological condition, your symptoms are likely there on the surface of your skin for all to see, impacting your self-worth and confidence, perhaps leading to depression. In fact, recent studies indicate the burden on quality of life associated with chronic itch is similar to that of suffering a stroke. And this condition is not a weight carried by the few; roughly one in four people will experience itch over their lifetime. Chronic itch accounts for 7 million physician visits a year.
And yet the condition has been largely overlooked. Until now.
In 2024, Shawn Kwatra, MD, joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) as the Joseph W. Burnett Endowed Professor and Chair of Dermatology. Upon arrival he founded the Maryland Itch Center and a center for precision dermatology, all to address the needs of patients from all over the world who have suffered in the shadows. Kwatra’s leadership emphasizes building high-performing teams, accelerating scientific discovery, and expanding clinical access through an integrated academic mission.
“Itch may sound like an ordinary occurrence, but for many, it’s a life-altering symptom that’s been overlooked for far too long,” said UMSOM Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD. “Thanks to Dr. Kwatra’s leadership, we now have a center that’s offering real hope — not just through compassionate care, but through groundbreaking science. His team’s work on immune profiling and the discovery of new inflammatory pathways is helping us understand these conditions in ways we never could before.”
Thomma was referred to Kwatra through the physician who was overseeing her asthma/allergy care. “Dr. Kwatra is engaging, knowledgeable, professional, personable, and always includes me in the process,” Thomma said. Kwatra diagnosed her with prurigo nodularis, a disease that causes disfiguring nodules and bumps, and prescribed once-a-month injections of a medication he was bringing to market, as well as a special shampoo and moisturizers. The impact on her life has been profound.
“Treatment has literally turned my life around,” she said. “I don’t shun people. I don’t avoid intimacy. I don’t cover myself up anymore. I don’t sob after showering. Pure joy.”
Unseen Suffering
Kwatra said his interest in patients like Thomma began earlier in his career, when he recognized a major gap in how academic medicine approached chronic itch. “The most suffering that I observed in dermatology were patients with severe itch whose suffering often went unseen, whose symptoms could not be easily measured or treated,” he said. This unmet need was not just in patients in the dermatology department; Kwatra also saw patients who suffered from severe kidney disease, liver disease, and spinal damage, as well as those receiving cancer therapeutics — all struggling.
“I realized itch is more than a symptom, it’s a condition that robs people of sleep, work, and their well-being. I also recognized that to impact patient care, chronic itch required the same level of scientific rigor, resource allocation, and programmatic development as other major chronic diseases,” he said.
The Maryland Itch Center is an extension of work being done in Kwatra’s lab, research that will impact many patients and grow the understanding of dermatological disease — both its causes and precision therapeutics to treat it. The center welcomes patients from across the nation and the world seeking relief from chronic, unexplained itch and itch associated with inflammatory skin diseases.
Under Kwatra’s leadership, the center has rapidly expanded its clinical footprint, research portfolio, and national collaborations, positioning the University of Maryland as a leader in chronic itch and inflammatory skin diseases. Kwatra routinely treats patients driving and flying long distances from around the country, and the center is leading internationally in the development of new therapeutics. for example, Kwatra was the lead global investigator on the study of nemolizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody that targets the interleukin-31 receptor A (IL-31RA), for the treatment of prurigo nodularis. It is the medication that brought relief to Thomma.
His group is pioneering the use of targeted therapeutics, such as JAK inhibitors, for the treatment of itch disorders, and the center is now the lead coordinating site in the world for the Phase III clinical trial of two new such medications, povorcitinib and ruxolitinib. The group also has developed novel therapies to alleviate itch including greater occipital nerve blocks, ketamine infusions, and applications of medical cannabis. The center works closely with peer institutions at UMSOM such as the Institute for Genome Sciences and other departments and research core facilities.
Read more about the Itch Center in the spring issue of CATALYST.
The latest issue of "CATALYST" magazine celebrates the students and alumni who represent the future of Maryland’s health, law, and social work professions. Read about a School of Nursing alumna who turned her 2023 Grid Pitch idea into Ryan’s Place, a health care center in Gaithersburg, Md.; how Maryland Carey Law’s Law and Health Care Program prepares students to serve; a School of Dentistry graduate who studies gene therapies to prevent and treat cleft lip; a School of Social Work graduate who has been appointed to Maryland’s Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs; the School of Pharmacy’s newly launched, one-of-a-kind MS in Artificial Intelligence for Drug Development program; and what’s on the desk of Courtney Jones Carney, assistant vice president of student success, leadership, and engagement.