Dr Bataille was instrumental in creating a Covid skin gallery of images with the support of the British Association of Dermatologists and Zoe Global LTD.

The gallery of images was collected via the COVID Symptom app as volunteers sent pictures of their rashes during the lockdown.

The gallery shows 8 types of rashes which can be found in 10% of swab positive subjects. More importantly, amongst those, the rash was the only sign if COVID infection in 21% of them. So it is important to be vigilant and any new rash, especially affecting the toes, must be regarded as a potential sign of COVID.

Although it is difficult to get a test with a skin rash only, it may be prudent to isolate, especially if you are in contact with people who are at risk of serious COVID. The gallery can be seen at www.covidskinsigns.com

Dr Bataille sits on the board of the European Association of Dermato-Oncologists and is involved in the writing of guidelines for the treatment of skin cancer in Europe.

The evolving field of Dermato-oncology and the role of dermatologists: Position Paper of the EADO, EADV and Task Forces, EDF, IDS, EBDV–UEMS and EORTC Cutaneous Lymphoma Task Force

Dr Bataille is also working with King’s College researchers and Mount Vernon Cancer Centre and other NHS Trusts on the importance of diet in cancer by investigating gut microbiome diversity in patients receiving immunotherapy for melanoma. This is part of the Seerave Consortium: www.seerave.org. With oncologists and microbiome experts, Dr Bataille has written reviews on the role of diet in cancer mediated via the diversity of the gut microbiome

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959804920304263

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8548300/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32889369/

Dr Bataille is also working with King’s College researchers and Mount Vernon Cancer Centre on the importance of diet in cancer by investigating gut microbiome diversity.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959804920304263

Since April 2020, Dr Bataille has carried out research on COVID rashes in collaboration with researchers at King’s College and the biotech company Zoe (https://covid.joinzoe.com/data).

The data collected via the COVID symptom app in the UK has been invaluable for COVID research and rashes occur in 8% of COVID cases and in 21% of those, the rash was the only presentation. It is therefore important to recognise another important potential sign of COVID infection.

The manuscript is now published in the British Journal of Dermatology: Br J Dermatol. 2021 May;184(5):880-887. doi: 10.1111/bjd.19807. Epub 2021 Mar 2.PMID: 33448030 

Other Links to COVID rashes research:

• https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/skin-rash-should-be-considered-fourth-key-symptom-of-covid
• https://www.itv.com/news/2020-07-15/skin-rash-should-be-considered-key-symptom-of-coronavirus-say-scientists
• https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-skin-rash-can-be-only-covid-19-symptom-and-should-be-fourth-key-sign-study-finds-12029116
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58801462
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/06/covid-toe-may-be-side-effect-immune-response-study
• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-toe-symptoms-nhs-images-b1933129.html

Dr Bataille and her team have recently published two papers looking at genes for hair colour as well as genes having a role in the skin’s ability to tan. The high number of new genes discovered will help the field of skin cancer but also other areas of medicine as pigmentation of hair and skin is linked to other diseases.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5940788/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0100-5

Dr Bataille continues to publish in high impact journals and was busy in 2017:

Ribero et al. Effects of sex on naevus body distribution and melanoma risk in two melanoma case-control studies at different latitudes. Brit J Dermatol 2017;176:1093-1094

Ribero et al. Acne and telomere length. A new spectrum between senescence and apoptosis pathways. J Invest Dermatol 2017;137:513-515

Ribero et al. Positive association between Vitamin D serum levels and naevus counts. Acta Derm Venereol 2017;10:321-324

Roos et al. Higher naevus count exhibits a distinct DNA methylation signature in healthy human skin: implications for melanoma. J Invest Dermatol 2017;137:910-920.

Puig-Butille JA et al. Genomic expression differences  between cutaneous cells from red hair color individuals and black hair color individuals based in bioinformatic analysis. Oncotarget 2017;14:11589-11599.

Law et al. Genome wide association shows that pigmentation genes play a role in skin aging. J Invest Dermatol 2017;137:1887-1894.

Zugna et al. Favourable prognostic role of histological regression in stage III positive sentinel lymph node melanoma patients. Br J Cancer 2017;Nov 9 Ahead of print.

View more on the Publications page.

Dr Bataille was an invited speaker at the 2017 European Association of Dermatologists and Venereologists in Athens and the 2017 European Association of Dermato-Oncology in Geneva.

Dr Bataille presented her latest melanoma research in Brisbane, Australia, at World Melanoma Congress in October 2017 and won a prize for the quality of her research.

Dr Bataille has recently organized with 2 dermatology colleagues the World Congress of Teledermatology at the Royal College of Physicians in London. The meeting attracted dermatologists and nurses from 22 countries and showed the rapid expansion of mobile applications for the remote diagnosis of skin cancer in areas of the world where dermatologists are not easy to reach.

The need for expertise in the diagnosis of skin lesions remotely is bigger than ever as the development of phone applications for skin cancer screening has expanded rapidly over the last few years with applications from GPs to specialists but also consumers directly to specialists. These applications raised important issues regarding diagnosis, confidentiality, audits, data storage and many others which were discussed at the meeting with many eminent teledermatologists from all over the world.

http://www.teledermatology2016.com/home

Dr Veronique Bataille has just published several articles on melanoma and continue her longstanding research interest in moles and skin cancer.

Dr Veronique Bataille offers Mole Mapping which is software from Fotofinder in Germany allowing for the documentation of all your moles with very detailed photographs called dermoscopy. These are magnified above 20 times. These photos are precisely mapped to your body so when you come back for follow up, the moles can be compared and the software finds them on each part of the body and allows to look for potential changes.

This is especially relevant for patients with a lot of naevi especially large ones called atypical naevi but also for patients with a family history of melanoma.