Alain Hovnanian obtained his medical degree from the University of Paris and trained in Dermatology and Genetics in Paris. From 1993 to 2000, he did his post-doctoral fellowship at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, UK, where he acquired experience in positional cloning of disease genes. In particular, he identified the genes for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, Darier disease and Netherton syndrome. He is now a Professor of Genetics at the University of Paris and Director of an INSERM research laboratory on genetic skin diseases at the Imagine Institute for Genetic Diseases. His research interests include epidermolysis bullosa, Netherton syndrome, and palmoplantar keratoderma with a specific focus on pachyonychia congenita (PC) and Olmsted syndrome (OS). In 2021, he was awarded the “Eurordis Black Pearl Award” for rare diseases. He is a member of the scientific advisory board and genetics team of the Pachyonychia Project. He recently identified a new gene for Olmsted syndrome, described EGFR hyperactivation in PC, and showed that the oral EGFR inhibitor erlotinib is an effective treatment for OS and PC patients.