Alumnus honors HSDM with $1 million gift to support oral medicine research and faculty mentorship

Renowned dermatologist Razzaque Ahmed, DMSc88, PD88, MPA95, has devoted his career to treating patients with life-altering blistering diseases and advancing new treatments for autoimmune disorders. His pioneering therapies have led to clinical remissions for patients afflicted with these disorders, giving them new hope. His scientific work—including more than 350 papers on the subject—has been internationally recognized, most recently by the American Academy of Dermatology, which awarded him a presidential citation in March 2025. Ahmed credits his research experience at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) as being the foundation for his success.

“It was the solid bridge I needed between very good research and very good clinical care,” Ahmed said. “The mentorship I received at HSDM carved my career going forward and framed my scientific and clinical discoveries. For this and more, I will remain forever grateful.”

His deep gratitude to HSDM inspired his recent gift of $1 million to the Department of Oral Medicine, Infection and Immunity (OMII). The funding will support forward-looking research and enable faculty in OMII to follow in the footsteps of Ahmed’s own faculty mentors—Dr. Gerald Shklar, an accomplished oral pathologist, and former Dean Paul Goldhaber, who established HSDM’s graduate programs in periodontology and oral medicine. The gift will initially function as a fund for research and, over time, with additional funding, it will mature into an endowed professorship.

“HSDM needs research funds and high-quality investigators. This gift will provide both, in the immediate future and in perpetuity,” he said.

“We are so grateful to Dr. Ahmed for his generous gift to OMII,” said department chair Magda Feres, DMSc99. “It comes at a critical time of much-needed support for research funding at HSDM. Current and future generations of faculty and scholars will greatly benefit from his vision and generosity.”

Ahmed followed a unique path to HSDM, coming to the School to pursue a Doctor of Medical Sciences program in oral medicine after completing medical school and training in internal medicine and dermatology, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at UCLA. He recognized that many of the blistering diseases he was seeing in patients would first appear in the mouth.

“As a young faculty member at UCLA, I treated a large number of patients with pemphigus and pemphigoid. Many, if not most, had oral diseases. I felt that I needed to know more about oral pathology and medicine.”

Once at HSDM, he gained experience in oral medicine, oral biology, and oral pathology. “This helped build my clinical base, which my earlier training had not provided. The HSDM experience enhanced my understanding of the ‘science of science’.”

He would go on to serve as a faculty member at HSDM and establish the Ahmed Lab, supported by research funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. After leaving HSDM, he opened the first independent Center for Blistering Diseases in the U.S. in 1998.

“I developed several unique protocols for treatment that were disease-specific and not pharmaceutical industry sponsored. These protocols have completely changed the prognosis of these potentially fatal autoimmune mucocutaneous diseases,” Ahmed said.

His findings led to a groundbreaking study on restoring immune tolerance in pemphigus vulgaris patients that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and his work has received awards and recognition in 29 different countries.

Now practicing as a dermatologist in Boston, he still appreciates the perspective he gained from his training at HSDM and wishes more physicians had the benefit of such cross-cutting exposure to dentistry.

“Physicians while training in medical school, or in residency, have minimal or no exposure to oral diseases and oral health. I can very comfortably understand and relate to practitioners of dental medicine,” Ahmed said. “My career in dermatology has significantly benefited by my knowledge of oral medicine and clinical management of oral health. It has made my approach to patient care more inclusive and comprehensive.”

His gift will continue to support the high-quality research and learning environment he benefited from at HSDM. He considers it an investment in bridging dental medicine to general medicine.

“Supporting HSDM’s research and recruiting outstanding faculty is one of the many ways to promote its excellence. This gift is intended for those purposes and more, for today, tomorrow, and the future ahead.”