Rheumatology

Thomas A. Griffin, MD, PhD

Appointment

Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Email

thomas.griffin@cchmc.org

Phone

513-636-3338

Fax

513-636-3328

Bio

Thomas A. Griffin, MD, PhD, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Case Western Reserve University Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies.

Dr. Griffin has completed both a pediatric residency at Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital in Cleveland and a pediatric rheumatology fellowship at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati. Currently a research instructor of Pediatrics and Proctor Scholar at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Dr. Griffin is board-certified in both pediatrics and pediatric rheumatology.

Dr. Griffin conducts basic research related to the molecular basis of autoimmune disease and his work is supported by the Arthritis Foundation and the National Institutes of Health

Credentials

PhD: Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies, Cleveland, Ohio, 1989.

MD: Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, 1991.

Residency: General Pediatrics, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, 1991-1994.

Fellowship: Pediatric Rheumatology, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1994-1998.

Certification: Pediatrics, 1994; Pediatric Rheumatology, 1998.

Position History

Resident in General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, 6/1991 through 6/1994.

Clinical Fellow in Pediatric Rheumatology, Division of Rheumatology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 7/1994 through 6/1998.

Research Instructor of Pediatrics, Division of Rheumatology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 7/1998 through 8/2001.

Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Rheumatology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 9/2001 to present.

Awards and Honors

Senior Rheumatology Scholar Award, American College of Rheumatology, 1998
Arthritis Investigator Award, American College of Rheumatology and Arthritis Foundation 1999
Election to the Society for Pediatric Research - 2002

Research

The research program is focused on understanding the functions of immunoproteasomes in cells of the immune system, particularly T cells. Immunoproteasomes are the dedicated proteasomes of the immune system and are responsible for most non-lysosomal intracellular protein degradation in these cells.

Immunoproteasomes play an important role in generating peptides for presentation by MHC class I molecules, but also appear to have other specific functions in T cells. We are using both transfected cells in culture and immunoproteasome subunit knockout mice as tools for elucidating these non-antigen processing functions. For example, T cells from mice deficient in two of the immunosubunits display hyper-proliferation in response to polyclonal stimuli. We are currently focused on elucidating the mechanism of this hyper-proliferation phenotype using such tools as nucleofection of primary T cells and gene expression analyses. We are also investigating the consequences of this phenotype on in vivo T responses, using stimulation with SEB super-antigen as a model, and on T cell-dependent autoimmune disease, using collagen-induced arthritis as a model.

Research Grants and Contracts

P60 AR 44059 (Glass)
07/01/96 - 05/31/01
MAMDC--University of Cincinnati College of Medicine EEHSR Project (Lovell)"Randomized controlled trial of calcium supplementation for bone mineralization in JRA"

P60 AR 44059 (Glass) 07/01/96 - 05/31/01
MAMDC--University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, "Administrative Unit"

K24 AR 02154 (Lovell) 04/01/2000 - 03/31/2005
"Clinical trials in pediatric rheumatology"

R03 AI44046 (Lovell) 09/30/98 - 08/31/01
"Development and validation of core sets of outcome measures and definitions of improvement for juvenile dermatomyositis and juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus."

Immunex Corporation (Estimated Period) 04/01/00 - 03/31/05
The major goal of this project is to assess the longer-term (3-5 years) safety of Enbrel in polyarticular JRA patients.

P60 AR00-001 (Glass)
09/01/01- 08/31/06
Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center in Cincinnati Project (Lovell) "Towards improved understanding of pathogenesis and treatment of childhood onset dermatomyositis."

P60 AR00-001 (Glass)
09/01/01- 08/31/06
Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center in Cincinnati Administrative Core-Associate Director

Publications, Most Recent

Jayarapu, K., and T.A. Griffin, Protein-protein interactions among human 20S proteasome subunits and proteassemblin.Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 314, 523-528 (2004).

De, M., Jayarapu, K., Elenich, L., Monaco, J.J., Colbert, R.A., and T.A. Griffin. Beta2 propeptides influence cooperative proteasome assembly.J. Biol. Chem., 278, 6153-6159 (2003).