FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Gisela F. Erf, immunologist for the University of Arkansas System’s Division of Agriculture, has been invited to participate in the “vitiligo road map,” a newly developed program of the National Vitiligo Foundation, because of her research in the field of vitiligo.

Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder in which melanocytes, the cells that make pigment in the skin, are destroyed after birth. As a result, white patches appear on the skin in different parts of the body.

The purpose of the vitiligo road map is to inform the public and vitiligo patients about research and accomplishments occurring worldwide in the field of vitiligo and to facilitate communication, interaction and collaboration among clinicians and researchers.

Gisela F. Erf

Erf said the vitiligo road map is a virtual map of the globe posted on the National Vitiligo Foundation Web site that shows the locations of productive centers of vitiligo research. It is part of an expanding effort by the foundation to support research, she said.

Erf joined the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science in July 1994. Since 2006, she has held the Tyson Professorship in Avian Immunology, funded by Tyson Foods Inc. with matching funds from the university’s matching gift program.

Erf conducts research in avian immunology and poultry health. A major portion of her program includes studies on the Smyth line chicken, an important animal model for human autoimmune vitiligo. The spontaneous onset and predictably high incidence of this autoimmune disorder in the Smyth line chicken provides unique opportunities to study the nature of autoimmune disease, including the role of the immune system, the environment and the target cells and tissue.

The poultry science department and the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science include a complex of teaching, research and extension facilities at the Arkansas Agricultural Research and Extension Center and the John W. Tyson Poultry Science Building on the University of Arkansas campus.

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