In the News Jennifer Anolik, M.D., Ph.D. Receives Competitive NIH Grant to Study Rheumatoid Arthritis A research team at the medical center led by Dr. Jennifer Anolik was chosen by the National Institutes of Health to become one of 11 NIH Accelerating Medicines Partnership in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Lupus Network. The research team will focus on RA, collecting joint tissue and analyzing how immune cells communicate with bone cells. The team hopes to better understand how these cells communicate in order to uncover novel approaches to halting or slowing the series of events the lead to inflammation. John Looney, M.D. Installed as Rosenfeld Distinguished Professor On June 20, 2014, John Looney, M.D. was installed as the Dr. Stephen I. Rosenfeld and Elise A. Rosenfeld Distinguished Professor in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at a celebration in the company of his colleagues and friends at the Genesee Valley Club in Rochester. Dr. Looney is board certified in allergy and immunology as well as rheumatology, infectious diseases and internal medicine and has been on the faculty since 1984. Dr. Looney is a compassionate clinician, has mentored countless students, residents and fellows and has a distinguished career in basic and clinical research. Dr. Stephen Rosenfeld and Dr. John Looney Dr. John Looney is one of six URMC faculty members to begin new research projects Six URMC faculty members are beginning new research projects funded by Clinical and Translational Science Institute pilot awards for 2014-2015. The CTSI's pilot program offers faculty members one-year awards for up to $50,000 to facilitate new research and future funding. Dr. Looney's project will examine the role of the gut microbiome in preventing allergic diseases. Dr. Ritchlin Recieves CTSI Grant In the hopes of advancing treatments for psoriatic arthritis, or even preventing it, researchers at UR Medicine are now studying a specific molecule on the surface of the cells that lead to the crippling condition. The research, led by Christopher Ritchlin, M.D., M.P.H., Chief of the Department of Allergy/Immunology, and Rheumatology, is supported by a 2-year, $250,000 incubator grant from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), which began on July 1. "If we can identify targets that we can inhibit, we can block the formation of these bone-resorbing cells," said Ritchlin. "We can develop new medications to stop bone-resorbing diseases like arthritis, osteoporosis, metastatic cancer." Minsoo Kim , Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Brendan Boyce, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, are co-principal investigators. Read more in Sean Dobbins' article at CTSI Stories. Recently Published Journal Articles Patients with rheumatoid arthritis in clinical remission manifest persistent joint inflammation on histology and imaging studies Anandarajah A, Thiele R, Giampoli E, Monu J, Seo GS, Feng C, Ritchlin CT. J Rheum. 2014 Nov;41(11):2153-60. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.140411. Epub 2014 Oct 1. Long-term B cell depletion in murine lupus eliminates autoantibody-secreting cells and is associated with alterations in the kidney plasma cell niche Wang W, Rangel-Moreno J, Owen T, Barnard J, Nevarez S, Ichikawa HT, Anolik JH. J Immunol. 2014 Apr 1;192(7):3011-20. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1302003. Epub 2014 Feb 26. Neutrophil-mediated IFN activation in the bone marrow alters B cell development in human and murine systemic lupus erythematosus Palanichamy A, Bauer JW, Yalavarthi S, Meednu N, Barnard J, Owen T, Cistrone C, Bird A, Rabinovich A, Nevarez S, Knight JS, Dedrick R, Rosenberg A, Wei C, Rangel-Moreno J, Liesveld J, Sanz I, Baechler E, Kaplan MJ, Anolik JH.