Division of Rheumatology Research
The Division of Rheumatology has a strong research focus on Rheumatoid Arthritis and Sarcoidosis.
Dr. Nadera Sweiss has participated as principal investigator in numerous clinical trials that focus on Sarcoidosis, Scleroderma, Raynaud’s phenomenon and Rheumatoid Arthritis, particularly for treatments when these disorders do not respond to traditional therapies.
Dr. Shiva Shahrara laboratory hopes that by taking a bench to bed side approach we will be successful in performing translational studies that would allow us to A. determine novel targets that inhibit neovascularization, monocyte recruitment and bone erosion in the RA joint and B. identify biomarkers that reflect RA disease severity and/or response to effective treatment.
Another research interest in Dr. Shahrara’s laboratory is to inhibit angiogenesis in the early disease onset since angiogenesis is an early and a critical event in the pathogenesis of RA that promotes ingress of leukocytes and pannus formation thereby inhibition of neovascularization may block chronic inflammation.