Program lead: M. Elaine Husni
The Inflammatory Joint Disease Research Program is dedicated to advancing our understanding and treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory arthritis through innovative approaches. Our focus lies in three key areas: (1) Early Disease Detection: We're pioneering biomarker discovery and novel imaging techniques to identify signs of arthritis at its earliest stages, allowing for prompt intervention; (2) Patient Stratification: By refining our understanding of disease burden and prognosis, we aim to better tailor treatments to individual patients, moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach; (3) Personalized Treatment: We're committed to enhancing therapeutic options by moving beyond trial and error, towards personalized treatment plans based on a patient's unique profile. To support these efforts, we've established disease-specific biorepositories housing over 20,000 samples. This invaluable resource fuels our exploration of potential risk factors for disease, targeted therapeutics, and the identification of associated comorbidities. Additionally, our translational research program using pre-clinical models synergistically examines the mechanisms of these immune-mediated diseases, fostering a comprehensive approach to improving patient outcomes.
Collaborators: Unni Chandrasekaran, Shashank Cheemalavagu, Jean Lin
Program lead: Suneel Apte
My laboratory, working closely with other scientists and clinicians at the Cleveland Clinic and elsewhere, is interested in the process of joint breakdown and inflammation in all forms of arthritis. We study human osteoarthritis and human and equine (horse) post-traumatic OA, which are thought to be degenerative in origin. We also investigate juvenile idiopathic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, where inflammation is the underlying cause. We analyze cartilage and synovial fluid taken from joints with these disorders using mass spectrometry based N-terminomics, which identifies the precise sites of molecular fragmentation as well as the proteases which are responsible. Our goal is to identify novel disease biomarkers, determine which proteases could be drug targets in these conditions, and understand the basic mechanisms of joint breakdown and inflammation. We are engaged in development of new technologies for biomarker detection and new drugs to target some of the principal proteases responsible for joint breakdown and inflammation.
Collaborators: Sumit Bhutada, Nicolas Piuzzi, Andrew Zeft, Sirada Panupattanapong, Belinda Willard, Ling Li, Laura Nedorezov, Paul Saluan, Caitlin Lewis, Lutul Farrow
Program lead: George Muschler
Our team focuses on accelerating the rate of development of safe and effective human cell therapies. In particular, we have developed and now use high content imaging and laboratory automation (robotics) as a platform for harvest, isolation, expansion and characterization of human stem and progenitor cells. We currently focus on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which may provide high quality starting materials for cell therapy strategies to treat diseases such as arthritis, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and some causes of blindness.
Collaborators: Kunio Nakamoto, John Barnard, Lekha Swamydas, Nicolas Piuzzi, Xiaojuan Li, Suneel Apte, Ron Midura, Vijay Krishna