Dr. Cowen’s primary interests include chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), primary immunodeficiency, autoinflammatory skin disease, cancer genodermatoses, and adverse drug reactions. As a founding member of the NIH chronic GVHD program, Dr. Cowen has authored more than 50 original manuscripts and chapters relating to the disease. Novel discoveries include the first identification of total body irradiation as a risk factor for skin fibrosis in chronic GVHD, the first comprehensive description of GVHD-associated angiomatosis, and the first link between voriconazole exposure and squamous cell carcinoma in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients. Current research interests include novel treatments for skin fibrosis and objective measurement tools to assess disease activity and response.

Dr. Cowen also participates in the NIH Undiagnosed Disease program and has been involved in the description of several novel syndromes in collaboration with other NIH investigators, including deficiency of the IL-1 receptor antagonist (DIRA), GATA2 deficiency, ADA2 deficiency, cutaneous skeletal hypophosphatemia syndrome, and SAVI syndrome.