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Jason Hawkes, MD, explains how targeted therapies are advancing precision medicine and reshaping personalized care for atopic dermatitis.
In a new interview with HCPLive, Jason Hawkes, MD, associate professor of Dermatology at the University of California Davis in Sacramento, reflected on the evolution of atopic dermatitis treatment, noted clinicians initially had only 1 single targeted biologic available for those with type 2 inflammation.
Since then, however, Hawkes described the therapeutic landscape as having broadened notably, with the introduction of increasingly selective biologics targeting individual cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-13 and IL-31, alongside Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors impacting multiple inflammatory pathways. He discussed these in his session at the 2026 Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) Conference and highlighted them in this on-site interview.1
According to Hawkes, this notable increase in the diversity of treatment mechanisms has allowed dermatology clinicians to have new and valuable opportunities to compare therapeutic responses across patients and disease states.
He described such advances as having extended beyond simply expanding treatment choices. As more targeted drugs have entered clinical practice, researchers have gained greater insight into why certain inflammatory pathways appear to drive some diseases but not others. Comparing responses among individuals living with atopic dermatitis, chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), nasal polyps, and other type 2 inflammatory disorders has begun to reveal meaningful biologic differences that were previously difficult to appreciate.
Hawkes emphasized that clinicians are now witnessing these distinctions in real-world patient care rather than relying solely on laboratory or animal models. Observing which patients respond to specific cytokine blockade, as well as identifying situations in which treatment improves inflammation without fully addressing itch, or vice versa, is helping investigators better characterize the heterogeneous nature of atopic dermatitis.
Rather than viewing atopic dermatitis as a single disease entity, Hawkes suggested the condition is increasingly being understood as a collection of biologically distinct subgroups. The expanding therapeutic armamentarium is allowing clinicians to identify these differences while generating new insights into disease mechanisms and treatment response.
Ultimately, Hawkes described this shift as an important step toward precision medicine in dermatology. By continuing to define the unique inflammatory pathways driving disease in individual patients, clinicians may eventually be able to better match therapies to specific disease phenotypes, improving outcomes while further refining the management of atopic dermatitis and related inflammatory conditions.
Disclosures: Hawkes has served as a consultant, advisory board member, investigator, and speaker for multiple pharmaceutical companies involved in dermatology, including AbbVie, Arcutis, Blueprint Medicines, Eli Lilly, Galderma, Incyte, Janssen, LEO Pharma, Novartis, Regeneron, Sanofi, Sun Pharma, Takeda, and UCB, among others. He has also received research funding and reports stock ownership in Regeneron.
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