Welcome to the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology

Restoring Normal Lives for Patients with the Rarest of Diseases

It was 2013. Audra Horomanski was midway through an away rotation at Stanford as a medical student outside her home institution. That was when she encountered a young woman with newly diagnosed granulomatosis with polyangiitis, or GPA. The disease is one form of vasculitis, a rare condition characterized by inflammation of the blood vessels.

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Matthew Baker: Increased risk of osteoarthritis in patients with atopic disease

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic disabling disease for which few effective treatments exist, and no disease-modifying drugs (i.e., treatments that can prevent, improve, or stop the progression of OA) exist. Mounting evidence suggests that mast cell activation and allergic pathways may play key roles in OA pathogenesis. We conducted a retrospective cohort study with propensity score matching using claims data and electronic health record data and compared cohorts of patients with atopic disease (either asthma or atopic dermatitis or both) versus patients without atopic disease, as well as patients with asthma compared with patients with COPD. We found a significant association between having allergic diseases such as asthma and/or atopic dermatitis and having an increased risk of developing OA. We are hopeful that this work will lead to future interventional studies to investigate whether inhibition of mast cells and/or allergic pathways may be beneficial in preventing or treating osteoarthritis.

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Oral mucosal breaks trigger anti-citrullinated bacterial and human protein antibody responses in rheumatoid arthritis

The Robinson Lab identified oral mucosal breaks as playing a critical role in driving autoimmunity and flares in rheumatoid arthritis. In collaboration with Dana Orange at Rockefeller University, they analyzed finger stick RNA-Seq datasets from RA patients and identified oral bacterial RNA in the blood of RA patients 4-6 wks prior to arthritis flares. They demonstrated that these oral bacteremias activate ISG15-expressing inflammatory macrophage and anti-citrullinated protein antibody expressing B cell responses, both of which are implicated in the pathogenesis of RA. They published these findings in Science Translational Medicine (Brewer et al., Sci. Transl. Med. 15, eabq8476, 2023).

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Diane Mar, MD received the Department of Medicine's 2023 Teaching Award

Congratulations to Diane Mar for receiving the Department of Medicine's 2023 Teaching Award. Each year, these awards honor educators across the department's divisions for their outstanding dedication, commitment, and expertise in medical education.

Join us, either in person or online, for the Award Ceremony during Medical Grand Rounds at 8 AM on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, in Li Ka Shing Center, Room 130. Pedram Fatehi, Vice Chair of Education, will present the awards.

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