The University of Dundee, Welcome Trust-funded Centre for Dermatology and Genetic Medicine (DGEM) is a cross-college, multidisciplinary research initiative which has brought together highly research active, internationally renowned clinical dermatologists, biologists and geneticists with specialists in drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, biomedical physics and bioinformatics. Within DGEM there is also significant bidirectional collaboration between the National Health Service diagnostic laboratories and the University research groups, which is a prerequisite for both recruitment of patients for research, as well as the rapid translation of genetic discoveries into diagnostic practice.  Close links to clinical dermatology and genetics also enables building of genetically-defined case collections to enable future clinical trials of experimental medicines. The inception of this research grouping has already led to formation of several new translational collaborations, a number of which have recently been awarded program-level research grants from Medical Research Council, European Research Council, Cancer Research UK, The Welcome Trust and a number of skin-disease charities such as DEBRA. Most of these research programs are aimed at developing and delivering small molecule and gene-silencing therapies in skin disease.