News

Javier Rangel-Moreno, Ph.D. recently presented "The role of IBALT in pulmonary immunity" at the Mucosal Immunology Symposium in Mexico where he was an invited international speaker. His research focuses on understanding the interactions among immune cells in target tissues.

Benjamin Korman, MD was recently awarded career development funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation. Dr. Korman is investigating how intradermal adipose tissue regulates connective tissue and modulates skin fibrosis in systemic sclerosis.

Ananta Paine, Ph.D. was recently awarded two grants, one from the National Psoriasis Foundation and the other from Pfizer to study PsA. His projects will include identifying novel biomarkers to be used to diagnosis and assess the risk of developing PsA as well as examining the effect of tofacitinib on modulation of aquaporin 3 expression in pathogenic Type 17 cells.

The NIH issued a news release in response to three papers in the June 18^thissue of Nature Immunology. This research was supported by the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP), of which the AIR Division is a part. The AMP brings together multiple entities in an effort to identify potential treatment targets for RA and SLE.

Read the NIH News Release

A key to treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other autoimmune diseases may be found in identifying "activated" cells inside the target tissue -- tissue from the joint itself.

A paper published in Nature Immunology details the results of a study looking at cell populations that contribute to RA, a common disease with chronic inflammation in the joint lining tissue or synovium. Jennifer H. Anolik M.D., Ph.D., professor of Medicine and associate chair for Research in the Department of Medicine, is one of four senior authors of the paper, "Defining inflammatory cell states in rheumatoid arthritis joint synovial tissues by integrating single-cell transcriptomics and mass cytometry."

While previous RA studies focused on analyses of blood samples, this is the first time researchers have comprehensively evaluated the immune cells and joint cells that interact to produce the inflammation and tissue damage seen in RA. The researchers applied single-cell RNA sequencing, mass cytometry, bulk RNA sequencing and flow cytometry to B cells, T cells, monocytes and fibroblasts from the joint tissue. Single-cell sequencing enabled researchers to identify 18 unique cell populations in the joints based on gene-expression patterns. Some of the cell types were seen in large numbers in samples from people with RA. These included both certain immune cells and other cells like fibroblasts, which build connective tissue in the joints.

One of the unique immune cell populations identified in the RA joints included activated B cells. These findings extend Anolik's prior RA research demonstrating a key role for B cells in joint damage and bone erosion by pinpointing a specific population of B cells in the tissue that may be particularly pathogenic. "This study gives us a unique window into rheumatoid arthritis that we never had before," says Anolik. "We now have the tools to obtain joint biopsies and thoroughly dissect their cellular and molecular composition using state-of-the-art technology."

Phase 1 of the study included 36 people with RA and 15 others with osteoarthritis, for comparison, from ten U.S. and international clinical sites. A much larger group of 100 RA patients and 200 lupus patients will participate in the ongoing Phase 2. A longer-term goal of this study is to better understand how cell populations in individual patients, including the activated B cells, predict treatment response.

"With RA patients, there is no way to know who will or will not respond to a particular therapy," adds Anolik. "A more personalized approach will provide a higher likelihood of success, and our findings of novel inflammatory cell populations represent exciting new targets for therapies to treat RA and potentially other autoimmune diseases. The single-cell analysis approaches of target tissue developed here offer tremendous potential for understanding other human diseases as well."

This work represents a large-scale collaboration among government, industry, nonprofit organizations and academic investigators called the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP). The AMP is funded by the National Institutes of Health and focuses on gene expression and signaling in tissues where disease is active, yielding tools to accelerate drug discovery for RA, lupus, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Jennifer Anolik, MD, PhD, Darren Tabechian, MD, Javier Rangel-Moreno, PhD and Nida Meednu, PhD along with colleagues from multiple medical centers have identified distinct cell populations from RA synovium which conceivably play key roles in the inflammation in the joints of patients with RA. Read the full article.

John Looney, MD, Kirsi Jarvinen-Seppo, MD. PhD, Steve Georas, MD, Sandy Khurana, MD, and Lisa Beck, MD have been awarded a WAO Center of Excellence. The WAO provides educational outreach programs, symposia and lectureships in 100 countries around the world. Centers of Excellence are tasked with intensifying and accelerating multi-disciplinary scientific and clinical research, education, and training in allergy, asthma and clinical immunology.

Jessica Stern, M.D. is one of five recipients of the 2019 Department of Medicine Education, Clinical Innovations & Research Pilot Project Grants. Dr. Stern was awarded funding for her project "Tackling inpatient PCN allergy: a pilot study at URMC."

As Associate Chair of Research, Jennifer Anolik, MD, PhD will be collaborating with Stephen Hammes, MD, PhD, Vice Chair for Research and Academic Affairs. They have been tasked with the oversight and continued development of the research, mentoring, and faculty development programs throughout the Department of Medicine.

Under Jennifer Anolik, MD, PhD, the Division has been part of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP), a collaboration between the NIH, biopharmaceutical companies and non-profit organizations. The AMP was designed with the goal of developing new diagnostic and treatment modalities in less time. Five years later, the program has seen promising results. Learn more from the article in Nature Reviews.