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Pediatric Rheumatology

Medical College of Wisconsin Pediatric Rheumatology Research

The Pediatric Rheumatology section at the Medical College of Wisconsin participates in a variety of scholarly activities including clinical research, clinical therapeutic trials, quality improvement studies, basic and translational research, and educational research and teaching. We participate in multicenter, collaborative studies as members of the Pediatric Rheumatology Collaborative Study Group (PRCSG), the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA), the Pediatric Rheumatology Care and Outcomes Improvement Network (PR-COIN), and the Subspecialty Pediatric Investigator Network (SPIN). Our faculty and fellows have been academically very productive with a consistent track record of publications and successful grant funding.

Current clinical studies include:

  • Pediatric Rheumatology Care and Outcomes Improvement
  • A Long-Term, Multicenter, Longitudinal Post-Marketing Observational Registry to Assess Long Term Safety and Effectiveness of Humira (adalimumab) in Children with Moderately to Severe Active Polyarticular or Polyarticular-Course Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA).
  • An Observational Registry of Abatacept in Patients with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.
  • Observation Study for Pediatric Rheumatic Diseases: The CARRA Registry
  • Assessment of Readiness for Transition to Adult Care in Teens with Rheumatic Disease

Current educational studies include:

  • Longitudinal Evaluation of the Required Level of Supervision for Pediatric Fellows
  • Virtual Clinic: A Digital Pediatric Rheumatology Curriculum

Current basic science and translational studies include:

  • Investigation of genetic disorders of the immune system including autoinflammatory diseases, primary immunodeficiencies, and early onset autoimmune disorders
  • Investigations of T cell development and maintenance of T cell tolerance
  • The role of Foxp3 regulatory T cells and T cell receptor antagonism as a mechanism of peripheral tolerance
  • The mechanisms of regulatory T cell-mediated suppression in models of inflammatory autoimmune disease
  • Investigation of the induced regulatory T cell-TH17 cell axis
  • Developing model of experimental murine autoimmune myositis
  • Investigation of T cell differentiation and T-regulatory cells/Th17 balance in murine experimental autoimmune myositis
  • Investigation of macrophage polarization and T-regulatory cells during muscle repair and regeneration
  • Natural History and Pathogenesis of Juvenile Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies Biobank

Sample of Recent Rheumatology Section Publications:

Targeting transmembrane-domain-less MOG expression to platelets prevents disease development in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Front Immunol. 2022 Oct 27;13:1029356.

Donor chimerism and immune reconstitution following haploidentical transplantation in sickle cell disease. Front Immunol. 2022 Dec 9;13:1055497.

GATA2 deficiency detected by newborn screening for SCID: A case report. Front Pediatr. 2023 Jan 16;10:1031106.

Internuclear Ophthalmoplegia in a Child With Deficiency of Adenosine Deaminase 2. J Neuroophthalmol. 2023 Mar 1;43(1):e12-e13.

Systemic lupus erythematosus in a 15-year-old with graft-versus-host disease following liver transplant and unexpected full hematopoietic engraftment. JAAD Case Rep. 2022 Apr 1;24:4-7.

The Elephant in the Rheum: Time to Address Mental Health as a Priority in Pediatric Rheumatology. J Rheumatol. 2023 Feb 15:jrheum.230057.

Depression And Anxiety In Patients With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: Current Insights And Impact On Quality Of Life, A Systematic Review. Open Access Rheumatol. 2019 Nov 1;11:237-252.

Anti-FHL1 autoantibodies in juvenile myositis are associated with anti-Ro52 autoantibodies but not with severe disease features. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2023 Feb 23;62(SI2):SI226-SI234.

Association of anti-HSC70 autoantibodies with cutaneous ulceration and severe disease in juvenile dermatomyositis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2022 Jul 6;61(7):2969-2977.

Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Correlate With Pain and Stress Using PROMIS Measures. J Rheumatol. 2022 Jan;49(1):74-80.

Treatment of anti-MDA5 autoantibody-positive juvenile dermatomyositis using tofacitinib. Brain. 2019 Nov 1;142(11):e59.

Risk factors associated with Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in juvenile myositis in North America. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021 Feb 1;60(2):829-836.

Anti-mitochondrial autoantibodies are associated with cardiomyopathy, dysphagia, and features of more severe disease in adult-onset myositis. Clin Rheumatol. 2021 Oct;40(10):4095-4100.

Anti-Cortactin Autoantibodies Are Associated With Key Clinical Features in Adult Myositis But Are Rarely Present in Juvenile Myositis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2022 Feb;74(2):358-364.

Genetic Defects that Predispose to Serious Viral Infections. Crit Care Clin. 2022 Apr;38(2):443-453.

Improved disease course associated with early initiation of biologics in untreated polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: A trajectory analysis of the STOP-JIA study. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2021 Jun 8. doi: 10.1002/art.41892.

Constrained chromatin accessibility in PU.1-mutated agammaglobulinemia patients. J Exp Med. 2021 Jul 5;218(7):e20201750. doi: 10.1084/jem.20201750. Epub 2021 May 5. PMID: 33951726; PMCID: PMC8105723.

Rituximab and antimetabolite treatment of granulomatous and lymphocytic interstitial lung disease in common variable immunodeficiency. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2021 Feb;147(2):704-712.e17. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2020.07.021. Epub 2020 Aug 1. PMID: 32745555.

Clinical Practice Guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), American Academy of Neurology (AAN), and American College of Rheumatology (ACR): 2020 Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme Disease. Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Jan 23;72(1):1-8. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciab049. PMID: 33483734.

Anti-Ku antibody-positive systemic sclerosis-polymyositis overlap syndrome in an adolescent. Pediatr Dermatol. 2020 Sep;37(5):960-961. doi: 10.1111/pde.14243. Epub 2020 Jun 10. PMID: 32519400.

Anti-mitochondrial autoantibodies are associated with cardiomyopathy, dysphagia, and features of more severe disease in adult-onset myositis. Clin Rheumatol. 2021 Apr 13. doi: 10.1007/s10067-021-05730-7. PMID: 33851273.

Risk factors associated with Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in juvenile myositis in North America. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021 Feb 1;60(2):829-836. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keaa436. PMID: 32889531; PMCID: PMC7850515.

Platelet gene therapy induces robust immune tolerance even in a primed model via peripheral clonal deletion of antigen-specific T cells. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2021 Jan 5;23:719-730. doi: 10.1016/j.omtn.2020.12.026. PMID: 33575117; PMCID: PMC7851450.

Serum S100A8/A9 and S100A12 Levels in Children with Polyarticular Forms of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: Relationship to Maintenance of Clinically Inactive Disease During Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor Therapy and Occurrence of Disease Flare After Discontinuation of Therapy. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019 Mar;71(3):451-459. doi: 10.1002/art.40727. Epub 2019 Jan 24

Thymic regulatory T cells arise via two distinct developmental programs. Nat Immunol. 2019 Feb;20(2):195-205. doi: 10.1038/s41590-018-0289-6. Epub 2019 Jan 14

Persistent Facial Swelling in an 8-Year-Old. J Pediatr. 2019 Jan; 204:318-318.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.08.024. Epub 2018 Sep 28

A Case of Pansclerotic Morphea Treated with Tocilizumab. JAMA Dermatol. 2019 Mar 1;155(3):388-389. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2018.5040

Identification of molecular signatures of cystic fibrosis disease status with plasma-based functional genomics. Physiol Genomics. 2019 Jan 1;51(1):27-41. doi: 10.1152/physiolgenomics.00109.2018. Epub 2018 Dec 12

Comparing Board Examination Scores Between Pediatric Residents in Continuity Clinics at Different Sites. WMJ. 2019 Apr;118(1):35-38.


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