Jonathan Barker is Professor of Medical Dermatology at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, King’s College London and consultant dermatologist at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, London UK. He established the Severe Psoriasis Service at St John’s Institute in 1996, the largest in the UK.

Jonathan’s training took place in London and at the University of Michigan, USA where his research focussed on molecular aspects of cell trafficking in skin and the central role of keratinocytes in these processes. He was first appointed to faculty in London in1991 before taking up his current chair in 2000. From 2000-2002 he was clinical director before appointment to Dean of St John’s, a post he held until 2018. During this time he was also Director of the KCL MSc in Clinical Dermatology and Lead of National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centre (Dermatology) at KCL.

Jonathan’s research focuses on long term skin condition such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and acne and extends from genetic discovery to clinical outcome measurement. He has been principal investigator of national and international consortia using genetic and multiomic approaches to discover causal disease mechanisms, new drug targets, biomarkers of disease subtypes and outcome indicators of therapeutic interventions. Highlights include first genetic evidence associating psoriasis vulgaris with IL-23 and TYK2 and GPP with IL-36. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers including in the Lancet, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications and New England Journal of Medicine, collecting 60,000 citations. His H-index is 120.

He has authored and edited several books including the latest (10th) edition of Rook’s Textbook of Dermatology.

Jonathan is a past President of the European Society for Dermatological Research (now lifelong honorary member) and the European Dermatology Forum (recipient of their Pro Meritis award)  having been secretary of both. From 2018-2021 he was President of the International Psoriasis Council. He was elected to German Academy of Sciences in 2006. His work is recognised through prizes and honorary membership of several national dermatological associations including Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, and the USA.