Rox Anderson, MD
Read BioR. Rox Anderson MD graduated from MIT, then received his MD degree magna cum laude from the joint MIT-Harvard medical program, Health Sciences and Technology. After completing residency in dermatology at Harvard and an NIH research fellowship, he joined the Harvard Medical School faculty. Professor Anderson is the inaugural Lancer Endowed Chair in Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and an adjunct faculty member of MIT. He is Director of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, a prolific Thematic Research Center at MGH that encompasses all biomedical aspects of light. Wellman Center is the birthplace of many innovations widely used around the world, and the largest center in its field, with a pipeline of new capabilities.
Dr. Anderson conceived and developed many of the non-scarring laser treatments for medical care. In dermatology, these include treatments for birthmarks, vascular and pigmented lesions, scars, aging skin, tattoos, permanent hair removal, acne and more. He also contributed to treatments for vocal cords, kidney stones, glaucoma, heart disease, photodynamic therapy for cancer and acne, and optical diagnostics including the first confocal microscope for human use. Dr. Anderson's research has advanced the basic knowledge of human skin photobiology, drug photosensitization mechanisms, tissue optics, and laser-tissue interactions. He has authored over 300 scientific papers or books. He is an inventor on more than 80 issued patents. Dr. Anderson has received many awards for his research contributions, teaching, leadership and impact in medicine. He was recently inducted into the US Patent Office’s Hall of Fame. His laboratory invented and developed cryolipolysis, a treatment using cold to induce permanent, selective loss of fat, and currently the leading source of royalty revenues at MGH. In addition to research, he practices dermatology at MGH and teaches at Harvard and MIT. Active research includes diagnostic tissue imaging and spectroscopy, mechanisms of selective tissue interactions with physical agents, cutaneous treatment of neurofibromatosis, mechanisms underlying photobiomodulation, and novel therapy for skin and eye disorders.
Laser Surgery
Light can pass harmlessly through live tissues, producing selective changes exactly at the sites of light absorption. Using pulses of light at wavelengths that are selectively absorbed in targets (blood vessels, pigmented skin cells, hair follicles, sweat glands, etc), light can selectively destroy these microscopic targets. A host of useful laser treatments have come from our work. Motivated initially to treat vascular birthmarks without scarring in children, we developed the concept of selective photothermolysis (SP). This is now the standard of care. We subsequently developed other lasers for tattoo removal, treatment of pigmented lesions, and permanent hair removal. Recently, the concept of treatments using arrays of microbeams was developed, called fractional photothermoloysis. Presently, we are developing laser targeting of other skin structures such as sebaceous glands, sweat glands, and fat. The research involves physical and biological mechanisms, laser technology modifications, novel light delivery devices, as well as preclinical animal and human studies.
Photodynamic Therapy
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) uses light-activated dyes or drugs to treat cancer, pre-cancer, abnormal blood vessels, inflammation, and other targets. For example, we discovered that PDT can potently inhibit the most common skin disease, acne, by affecting sebaceous glands. Using local and systemic photosensitizers, we are studying new therapies for vascular lesions, skin cancer and acne.
In-Vivo Microscopy
Another initiative is to find less-invasive, effective ways to localize skin cancers as a guide to therapy. The first infrared confocal laser-scanning microscope was invented and developed at Wellman, which creates “living biopsy” images. New approaches for imaging skin cancer are also being developed using polarized light fluorescence and scattered light imaging.
