The Division of Rheumatology Maintains International Stature
Rheumatology has had a successful fiscal year with a number of important accomplishments and publications, including: Collaborating with Seattle Children’s, Edward Giannini, MSc, DrPH, has shown that aggressive treatment early in the disease course leads to better therapeutic responses and outcomes in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Michael Henrickson, MD, MPH, published a comprehensive evaluation of the pediatric rheumatology workforce. An institution-wide initiative led by Michael Barnes, PhD, created a biobank for tissues and DNA that is expected to have 750,000 samples before the end of the year; the samples will be useful to research. The continuing efforts of Susan Thompson, PhD, and colleagues led to discovery of a gene important for juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
Work with Micro-RNA’s Leads to Important Findings
Nan Shen, MD, has revealed many of the details of how small RNA’s, called micro-RNA’s, control the production of particular inflammatory mediators known as cytokines. Shen’s research has important clinical implications for treating autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, allergy and asthma.
Center for Autoimmune Genomic Etiology Joins eMERGE Consortium
As a result of the work of John Harley, MD, Cincinnati Children’s is now an NIH-funded member of the eMERGE (electronic MEdical Records and GEnomics) Network. This network is a consortium of biorepositories linked to electronic medical records data for conducting genomic studies. We are helping lead the national initiative to use genetic data with electronic medical records to deepen our understanding of childhood diseases and usher in the coming era of personalized medicine.
