My early work with outstanding mentors, who were pediatric rheumatologists, led me to pursue my clinical and research interests. During my fellowship, the unfortunate death of a patient from macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) prompted me to further study this life-threatening complication of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
Currently, I focus on identifying risk factors and new therapeutic targets in MAS. Our transnational studies have identified interferon gamma (INF), a dimerized soluble cytokine, as a therapeutic target in patients suffering from MAS. This discovery provided the rationale for a new clinical trial that is currently underway.
My research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (SJIA) Foundation. I have also received research grants from Sobi, Novartis and AB2Bio.
MD: Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Pediatric Medical Institute, Russia, 1986.
Residency: Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Medical Institute, Russia, 1988; Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, OH, 1998.
Fellowship: Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Pediatric Medical Institute, Russia, 1991; Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, OH, 1995.
Certification: Pediatrics, 1999; Pediatric Rheumatology, 2000.
Auto-inflammatory diseases, systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, hemophagocytic syndromes
Identification of the pathogenic pathways and new therapeutic targets in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and its complications (macrophage activation syndrome and inflammatory lung disease); clinical trials in autoinflammatory diseases.
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Clinical, Immunologic, and Genetic Characteristics in Patients With Syndrome of Undifferentiated Recurrent Fevers. Arthritis and Rheumatology. 2025; 77:596-605.
Transcriptional Profiling of Tofacitinib Treatment in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: Implications for Treatment Response Prediction. Arthritis Care and Research. 2025; 77:513-521.
Allogeneic haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation for children with refractory systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and associated lung disease: outcomes from an international, retrospective cohort study. The Lancet. Rheumatology. 2025; 7:e243-e251.
Lack of HLH in FMF. Pediatric Rheumatology Online Journal. 2025; 23:14.
Achieving Medication-Free Remission in Patients With Juvenile Dermatomyositis. ACR Open Rheumatology. 2025; 7:e11751.
Current treatment in macrophage activation syndrome worldwide: a systematic literature review to inform the METAPHOR project. Rheumatology. 2025; 64:32-44.
S100 proteins as potential predictive biomarkers of abatacept response in polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Arthritis Research and Therapy. 2024; 26:125.
Biomarker Changes in Response to Tofacitinib Treatment in Patients With Polyarticular-Course Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Arthritis Care and Research. 2024; 76:1723-1732.
EULAR/PReS recommendations for the diagnosis and management of Still's disease, comprising systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and adult-onset Still's disease. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 2024; 83:1614-1627.
Enrichment of Rare Variants of Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis Genes in Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Arthritis and Rheumatology. 2024; 76:1566-1572.
Alexei A. Grom, MD, Michael B. Jordan, MD3/22/2021
Alexei A. Grom, MD, Grant Schulert, MD, PhD10/29/2019
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