Research Committee
Dupuytren Research Committee
Dupuytren disease has traditionally been treated as a surgical disease, an approach that reached a therapeutic plateau fifty years ago. Progress in long-term disease control demands a new approach to research. Dupuytren disease is a chronic progressive genetic medical disease that creates hand deformities late in its course. The tools to develop more effective Dupuytren treatments exist in laboratories, not operating rooms. The Dupuytren Research Group Committee is a diverse group of scientists located in five countries. This international group is best qualified to untangle the mystery of Dupuytren disease and to offer a better future for those affected by Dupuytren disease and related conditions.
Blake Hummer PhD
Dr. Blake Hummer is the Chief Data Scientist at the Dupuytren Research Group. He is a bioinformatician at Ambry Genetics, specializing in second and third-generation sequencing, pipeline engineering, and data analysis. His background spans neuroscience, molecular and synthetic biology, and oncology diagnostics. He contributed to the DRG’s first peer reviewed manuscript identifying prognostic biomarkers for Dupuytren’s Disease.
Thomas Dohse
Thomas Dohse is the Chief AI Officer at the Dupuytren Research Group. He brings two decades of experience in software engineering and artificial intelligence to the DRG. His work focuses on data infrastructure, computational tool development, and the application of machine learning & large language models to the search for the root causes of Dupuytren disease.
Dominic Furniss DM MA MBBCh FRCS(Plast)
Dr. Furniss is Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Oxford and a very active Surgeon Scientist at Oxford University. He established and leads the British Society for Surgery of the Hand Genetics of Dupuytren’s Disease consortium (BSSH-GODD consortium) and has published extensively on Dupuytren research.
Prof. Ilse Degreef
Ilse Degreef is a professor of orthopaedic surgery, senior lecturer in Orthopaedic and hand surgery, and surgeon in chief at the Orthopaedic Department of Leuven University Hospitals. She maintains both full-time clinical practice at the Orthopaedic Department at Leuven University Hospitals in Leuven and active research in new biologic treatments for Dupuytren and other fibrotic diseases.
Charles Eaton MD
Dr. Charles Eaton is a hand surgeon with extensive Dupuytren disease experience. He is the founder and executive director of the Dupuytren Research Group. He devised the IDDB research project and currently serves as chair of the Dupuytren Research Group Research Committee.
