Pediatric Rheumatology is one of the newest and smallest of the pediatric subspecialties. The specialty focuses on musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases of childhood, of which the most common is juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Serving this population of children are fewer than 200 board-certified pediatric rheumatologists in the United States. All but a handful of these are clinicians who do not engage in research. There are only five centers with three or more faculty;at least 60 medical schools have no pediatric rheumatologist on their faculty. Although there is a well-recognized need to train more pediatric rheumatologists, especially physician scientists, there exists only one NIH-funded training program in pediatric rheumatology, to our knowledge. As a result, few pediatric rheumatologists have had research mentorship and academic role models and they lack the skills to perform cutting edge research. The Division of Pediatric Rheumatology at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, with substantial and sustained institutional support, has as its goal the creation of a national center of excellence for Pediatric Rheumatology offering comprehensive, state-of-the-art clinical care, educational programs, and competitive research involving clinical, translational, and basic sciences. One of our central missions is to educate a new generation of academic pediatric rheumatologists who can play a leading role in the specialty as physician scientists. We intend to do so by providing, within a single center, the research role models, mentorship, and rich environment necessary for nurturing such individuals and ensuring their success. The Program seeks to train 2 fellows in each year of training. While many of the pediatric rheumatic diseases are distinct from those seen in adults, there are pathophysiologic pathways common to both, as well as to other autoimmune diseases and other processes involving aberrant immune responses. Therefore, our philosophy has been to pursue a multidisciplinary approach. This strategy has been successful and productive in the past. The proposed Training Program is structured to offer trainees the opportunity to interact with research faculty in the pediatric and adult rheumatology divisions and the broader immunology community within the medical center. Program Faculty have been chosen who have external funding, who excel in mentoring trainees, and whose research falls into one of four categories: (1) studies in pediatric rheumatic diseases, (2) studies in rheumatic diseases in general (both pediatric and adult), (3) studies in animal models of autoimmunity, and (4) immunobiological studies judged to be of relevance to the pathophysiology of pediatric rheumatic diseases. A number of faculty are involved in research spanning more than one of these categories.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
7T32AR052282-06
Application #
7849272
Study Section
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Special Grants Review Committee (AMS)
Program Officer
Wang, Yan Z
Project Start
2005-05-01
Project End
2010-04-30
Budget Start
2009-05-02
Budget End
2010-04-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$232,975
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pittsburgh
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
004514360
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Ferguson, Ian D; Griffin, Patricia; Michel, Joshua J et al. (2018) T Cell Receptor-Independent, CD31/IL-17A-Driven Inflammatory Axis Shapes Synovitis in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Front Immunol 9:1802
Campfield, Brian T; Eddens, Taylor; Henkel, Matthew et al. (2017) Follistatin-like protein 1 modulates IL-17 signaling via IL-17RC regulation in stromal cells. Immunol Cell Biol 95:656-665
Ardalan, Kaveh; Zigler, Christina K; Torok, Kathryn S (2017) Predictors of Longitudinal Quality of Life in Juvenile Localized Scleroderma. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 69:1082-1087
Poff, S; Li, S C; Kelsey, C E et al. (2016) Durometry as an outcome measure in juvenile localized scleroderma. Br J Dermatol 174:228-30
Way, Emily E; Trevejo-Nunez, Giraldina; Kane, Lawrence P et al. (2016) Dose-Dependent Suppression of Cytokine production from T cells by a Novel Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Delta Inhibitor. Sci Rep 6:30384
Niehaus, Jason Z; Good, Misty; Jackson, Laura E et al. (2015) Human SERPINB12 Is an Abundant Intracellular Serpin Expressed in Most Surface and Glandular Epithelia. J Histochem Cytochem 63:854-65
Niehaus, Jason Z; Miedel, Mark T; Good, Misty et al. (2015) SERPINB12 Is a Slow-Binding Inhibitor of Granzyme A and Hepsin. Biochemistry 54:6756-9
Ferguson, Ian D; Weiser, Peter; Torok, Kathryn S (2015) A Case Report of Successful Treatment of Recalcitrant Childhood Localized Scleroderma with Infliximab and Leflunomide. Open Rheumatol J 9:30-5
Aggarwal, Rohit; Cassidy, Elaine; Fertig, Noreen et al. (2014) Patients with non-Jo-1 anti-tRNA-synthetase autoantibodies have worse survival than Jo-1 positive patients. Ann Rheum Dis 73:227-32
Campfield, Brian T; Nolder, Christi L; Marinov, Anthony et al. (2014) Follistatin-like protein 1 is a critical mediator of experimental Lyme arthritis and the humoral response to Borrelia burgdorferi infection. Microb Pathog 73:70-9

Showing the most recent 10 out of 28 publications