Scott Florell, MD, is a dermatopathologist and researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute and an associate professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He examines skin and mole biopsies to determine if a specimen is cancerous, what type of cancer is present, and how advanced it is. Doctors recommend a course of treatment based on the dermatopathologist’s diagnosis.

Additionally, Florell is a researcher in the Tom C. Mathews Jr. Familial Melanoma Research Clinic (FMRC). In the 1980s, researchers at the University of Utah studied several Utah families with high rates of melanoma. Examining the genetic similarities of these families, the researchers identified gene p16, which, when mutated, predisposes its carriers to a higher-than-average number of moles and an increased risk for melanoma. Members of these families are now being reexamined in the FMRC to see what skin changes have occurred.

Florell received his MD from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. He completed residencies in anatomic and clinical pathology and clinical dermatology at the University of Utah, and a postdoctoral research fellowship at Huntsman Cancer Institute.