Alison is Professor of Dermatology at Hull York Medical School and is the Clinical Lead the new Skin Research Centre and Clinical Affiliate at the York Biomedical Research Institute at the University of York. She has been a Consultant Dermatologist for over 25 years and is the Director for Research and Innovation at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.

She has developed and delivered many Phase I-IV clinical trials examining the efficacy of treatment for common inflammatory dermatoses including acne. She leads a supra-regional clinical service for acne and has developed a comprehensive ethically approved acne database which has informed epidemiological research. Through an NIH grant, she has supported the international ACORN (Acne Core Outcome Research Network); this is informing the development of standardised outcome measures for use in clinical trials.

She was co-Chief Investigator on a NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) funded study examining the efficacy of Spironolactone in adult females with acne which demonstrated positive results and was recently published in the British Medical Journal. She is currently co-applicant on an NIHR programme grant looking at the development and impact of an intervention for acne and a further NIHR HTA funded study examining isotretinoin dosing. She represents the UK on European and International Global Acne Panels and is a member of the European Dermatology Forum. She has published widely and acted as clinical lead for Evidence Based Guidelines and Cochrane Systematic Reviews and is lead author for the Acne chapter in Rook’s Textbook of Dermatology and the Oxford Textbook of Medicine.

Prof. Alison Layton has received financial support/sponsorship for research support, consultation, or speaker fees from the following companies: