RHEUMATOLOGYMEET2021

Dr. Bourgoin is a full professor at Laval University, in the Department of Microbiology, Infectious diseases & Microbiology. He graduated from the University Paris XI, France with a PhD in Life Sciences in 1987. He completed postdoctoral training in the Rheumatology & Immunology Research Center (Québec city, Canada), and the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, Canada) in the area of lipid mediators, signalling, and cell biology. He became a professor at Laval University in 1992. He has received several research awards from the Arthritis Society: Postdoctoral Fellow (1988 to 1992), Senior Research Scholar (1996 to 1999), and Research Scientist (1999 to 2004). Dr. Bourgoin has been a member of the Canadian Arthritis Network (1997 to 2011), and a member of the Inflammatory Research Association. He was a member of the Grant Review Committee of the Arthritis Society of Canada (grant/fellowship), the Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQ-S), and of several Canadian Institute for Health Research peer review panels. He as supervised 16 undergraduate students, 6 MSc students, 11 PhD students, and 9 postdoctoral fellows. His ongoing research interests are lipid mediators of inflammation, understanding early atherosclerosis in rheumatic autoimmune diseases, and neutrophil biology. He organized several international conferences, workshops and schools and is a frequently invited speaker. He is a member of the editorial boards (Biochem. Pharmacol., Cells), and served as guest Editor (J. Leukoc. Biol.) or as a reviewer for several scientific journals. He has published more than 107 research papers, book chapters or reviews in career. He has an h-index of 41 according to Google Scholar. He is one of the founding members of the Neutrophil International Symposium, which is now organized every two years. Currently, he is the director of the graduate studies at the faculty of Medicine at Laval University.

Dr. SA Haq, Professor, Department of Rheumatology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and President, Asia-Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology (APLAR), established first Rheumatology clinic of Bangladesh in 1991. He formed Bangladesh Rheumatology Society in 1997 and currently is its President. He founded the COPCORD Study Group in Bangladesh in 2000. Dr. Haq’s areas of academic interest include Epidemiology of rheumatic disorders, knee OA and SLE. He has more than 175 publications in national and international journals out of which 98 are originals. He was awarded a Gold Medal by “Bangladesh Academy of Sciences” for contribution to the advancement of Science in the country. He has served APLAR in the capacities of APLAR-COPCORD coordinator, Vice President, Treasurer and President-Elect.

Prof. Yehuda Shoenfeld is the founder and head of the Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, at the Sheba Medical Center, which is affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in Tel-Aviv University in Israel. Professor Shoenfeld’s clinical and scientific works focus on autoimmune and rheumatic diseases, and he has published more than 1750 papers in journals such as New Eng J Med, Nature, The Lancet, Proc Nat Acad Scie, J Clin Invest, J Immunol, Blood, FASEB, J Exp Med, Circulation, Cancer and others. Professor Shoenfeld is on the editorial boards of 43 journals in the fields of rheumatology and autoimmunity and is the founder and the editor of the IMAJ (Israel Medical Association Journal), the representative journal of science and medicine in the English language in Israel, and also is the founder and Editor of Autoimmunity Reviews (Elsevier) (Impact factor 7.9) and co-Editor of the Journal of Autoimmunity (Impact factor 8). For the past twenty years Yehuda has been the Editor of “Harefuah” – The Israel Journal in Medicine (Hebrew). Professor Shoenfeld received the EULAR prize in 2005, in Vienna, Austria. In UC Davis, USA, Professor Shoenfeld received the Nelson’s Prize for Humanity and Science for 2008. He was recently awarded a Life Contribution Prize in Internal Medicine in Israel, 2012 as well as the ACR Master Award in 2013.

Dr Mok graduated with her MBBS from the University of Hong Kong in 1992. She trained in rheumatology at the Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong from 1996–1999. She obtained Croucher Foundation scholarship to pursue clinical and laboratory training on systemic lupus erythematosus under supervision of Prof. David Isenberg at the Bloomsbury rheumatology unit of the University College London in 1998/1999. She became fellow in rheumatology and advanced internal medicine at the Hong Kong College of Physicians and Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 1999/2000. From 2001–2007, she enrolled in part-time training in Immunology under the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and obtained her fellowship in 2007. In the same year, she joined the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong as clinical assistant professor. Her MD research thesis was awarded by the University of Hong Kong in 2011. She was visiting scholar at the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Glasgow, and the Centre for Autoimmunity and Musculoskeletal diseases, The Feinstein Institute for Research, New York from 2011–2012, and Program of Clinical and Molecular Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2019. She became associate professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the City University of Hong Kong since August 2016. She has over 90 peer-reviewed research articles and has supervised 7 research postgraduate students. She is associate editor of the peer-reviewed journal International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases. She is council member and convenor of the scientific committee of the Hong Kong Arthritis & Rheumatism Foundation. She also serves as adviser for the Hong Kong Society of Rehabilitation and many local rheumatology patient self-help groups

Ram Raj Singh is a physician-scientist and immunologist who returned to the UCLA School of Medicine as a Professor of Medicine and Pathology in 2004. He serves as a Program Director for an NIH Institutional Training grant in rheumatology and translational immunology. He is also Director of basic and translational research in the division of rheumatology and directs interdisciplinary translational immunology cluster series. Before returning to UCLA, he was Associate Professor (1998-2004) and then Professor (2004) at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine where he had moved from UCLA after completing his research and fellowship training at UCLA in the Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology and Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics. Dr. Singh received his medical education (MBBS and MD) and training at King George’s Medical College in Lucknow and All-India Institute of Medical sciences in New Delhi. His research on immune pathogenesis of lupus and autoimmune diseases and mechanisms of tolerance has been recognized by over a dozen national and international awards, including Carol Nachman Prize, one of the largest international prize in experimental rheumatology that he received from the President of Germany; Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award from the American College of Rheumatology; Cutting Edge Lupus Research-Lupus Research Institute award; James R. Klinenberg Science Award from the National Arthritis Foundation; Henry Christian Award (in the Autoimmunity category) from the American Federation for Medical Research; and Science Recognition Award for New Investigators from the Clinical Immunology Society. His research team includes faculty members: Anagha Divekar, PhD, Ramesh Halder, PhD, Suzanne Kafaja, MD, Peter Kim, MD, Jennifer King, MD, Chetachi Okereke, MD, and Janny Zhu, MD, PhD; postdoc fellows Curtis Adams, PhD, Alexandra David, PhD, Rita Okorogu, MD, Julia Pinkhasov, PhD, and Isela Valera, PhD, student Sahar Salehi, volunteer Kelly van der Kar, lab assistant Rachael Philips, and lab manager Dora Acuna, MS. Research in his laboratory is currently funded by NIAID, NIAMS, NICHD, American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation, Arthritis Foundation, and American Heart Association. Dr. Singh's laboratory is devoted to understanding the cellular and molecular basis of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus), scleroderma and rheumatoid arthritis

Degree in Pure Mathematics, more than 30 years of experience in statistics, applied mathematics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Wide breadth in both application fields and methodology. Long experience in using both commercial analytical software. Currently Chief Data Scientist in SDG Group. Significant experience in medical, life sciences and clinical data and their intersection with insurance and payer/provider interaction. During his career he has worked in epidemiology, applied statistics to cardiological and vascular studies, in cancer studies, in pharmaceutical studies from drug discovery to post marketing surveillance, rehabilitation and recently in studies about genetic characterization of the severity of Covid19. He has also been one of the main contributors in the DocDot app and framework indicated as best practice both by the WHO and by Forbes

Rienk Dekker is a consultant in rehabilitation medicine and a professor in the field of Active lifestyle and Rehabilitation in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands. In the field of scientific research, education and patient care he focuses on physical activity, sports and rehabilitation. In the context of research he delivered his PhD in 2004, has published over 95 peer-reviewed international (co-)authored articles on this subject and is involved in a number of related PhD-projects. He succeeded in acquiring relevant grants to facilitate research in this field. As a principal investigator and rehabilitation physician he aims to implement the principles of an active life style in preferably all rehabilitation treatments as a means to enhance the outcome of the rehabilitation process. For that purpose, in close collaboration with a number of (research) partners, he is committed to develop several initiatives. Starting up a network of rehabilitation physicians working in the field of exercise, developing protocols for enhancing physical fitness, defining performance indicators, delivering presentations on the topic and setting up specific training options for personnel are some examples of these initiatives.

I have been working as an orthopaedic-based pain physician/ pain researcher at Aichi Medical University in Japan. I majored in pain imaging/pain related neuroscience researches in post graduate school and have been working in this field for 20 years. My expertise covers major musculoskeletal disorders, rheumatic disease, quality of life research, and pain psychology. I’m currently an editorial board member of Pain & Therapy (ISSN:2193-8237) and an associate editor of Health and Quality of Life (ISSN:1477-7525)

Manfred Schedlowski is Professor and Director of the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology at the Medical Faculty, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Born 1957 in Hannover, Germany, he obtained his degree in Psychology and his PhD at the Department of Medical Psychology, Hannover Medical School, Germany. Since October 1997, Manfred Schedlowski is Full Professor and Director of the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology at the Medical Faculty, University Essen-Duisburg interrupted by a research stay as Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland (2004-2007). Manfred Schedlowski’s current primary focus of research is the neurobiology of placebo and nocebo responses, in particular the mechanisms and clinical relevance of behavioral or Pavlovian conditioning of immune and neuroendocrine functions.

Dr. Nuria Barbarroja is Associate Professor and Senior Investigator in the “Systemic and chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases” group in the Maimonides Biomedical Research Institute of Cordoba (IMIBIC) at the University of Cordoba. Her research career comprises 18 years of work in Obesity and Autoimmune and Inflammatory Chronic Diseases. The quality of her investigation is supported by the publication of the findings in many journals of relevance in each area, the direction of thesis and projects, the participation in national and international projects and the generation of four patents. She is doing both, research in rheumatology and teaching activity in the degree of Medicine and in the Master “Translational Research in Biomedicine”. The objective of her current research is to determine the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of metabolic comorbidities, such as obesity and insulin resistance, that contributes to the cardiovascular disease associated with rheumatic diseases. During her postdoctoral training she worked in both, Endocrinology Department, Virgen de la Victoria Hospital, Malaga for 2 years and in the Institute Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, UK for 2 years, where she actively participated in several projects and research lines related to the obesity and metabolic field.

Dr Pérez Sánchez has a PhD in biomedicine at the University of Cordoba (UCO), Spainand has two Masters. Currently, hehold a post-dococtoral position at IMIBIC and is the co-director and CSOof the Start-up Shortcut Scientific based in Cambridge. He has an H-index of 14, 618 cites and35 peer-reviewed publications in the highest impact journals in the field. He is the main or last author in 22of these publications.Hecolaborate with national and international groups as a result of different research stages during his PhD and postdoc training in centres such as Lupus Unit Research of London (UK, 6 months), and Department of Medicine at the Univ. of Cambridge, Smith Lab (UK, 24 months).He hasauthored 5 patents related to genomic biomarkers of autoimmune diseases and has participated asmember of several Scientific Societies, Evaluator panels and Reviewer boards.

Dr. Faten FRIKHA is a Professor of internal Medicine at the Department of Internal Medicine, Sfax University School of Medicine in TUNISIA. After her internal Medicine Residency at the University of Sfax, she completed a traineeship at Pitié- Salpêtriere Hospital in Paris France. She has her Ph.D. in internal Medicine in 2015 and is the author of over 100 articles in scientific journals. Faten Frikha Reasearch Interest are : Systemic diseases, auto-immune diseases, inflammatory diseases, Connective tissue diseases : Rheumatoid arthritis, Systemic Lupus erythematosus, Systemic Sclerosis, Sjogren Syndrome, Vasculitis : Behçet’s disease, Takayasu arteritis, Horton Disease, Targeted therapy, Biologic drugs, Hypertension, diabetes mellitus.

Dr. Coziana Ciurtin is Associate Professor and Principal Investigator in the Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology and Deputy Head of Inflammation at University College London, as well as Consultant in Adolescent and Adult Rheumatology at University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. Her professional interests include the role of puberty and sex bias in autoimmunity, multi-omics analysis for personalised treatment approaches in lupus, as well as musculoskeletal ultrasonography and translational research in inflammatory arthritis across age. Coziana holds an MD (2000), MSc in Biophysics and Cellular Biotechnology (2002) and a PhD in Rheumatology (2007) from the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine, Bucharest, Romania and an MSc in Rheumatology from University of Oxford, UK (2011), and was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 2015.

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Dr Md Yusof is a Senior Research Fellow within the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine and a Consultant Rheumatologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), United Kingdom. He graduated from the University of Manchester Medical School in 2008. Having completed his medical membership (MRCP) in Greater Manchester region in 2012, he relocated to Leeds to pursue a career in academic medicine. He was bestowedanNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Academic Clinical Fellow and was subsequently successful in securing the prestigious NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship in 2014 (£0.5m) to undertake a PhD programme at the University of Leeds. He completed his PhD in November 2018. Post-PhD, he was awarded an NIHR Clinical Lecturer post and subsequently a Wellcome Trust ISSF Senior Research Fellow. His major research interests include B-cell therapies, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren’s syndrome, outcome measures, clinical trials and personalised medicine.He has an H-index of 14 and is the first author in 32 peer-reviewed publications in the highest impact journals in the field. He has received numerous accolades including the 2019 Best Abstract Award in Clinical Science at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) congress (out of 5000 entries), the 2019 Best Junior Doctor Involvement in Research and Innovation Award, LTHT and the 2017 University of Leeds Postgraduate Researcher of the Year (Runner-Up) Award. Outside Leeds, he is appointed to the British Isles of Lupus Assessment Group (BILAG) Renal Subcommittee, the UK Primary Sjogren Syndrome Registry (UKPSSR) Study Steering Committee, Clinical Trial Endpoint Committee/Adjudicator for commercial trials and past Working Group Member of the Emerging European Rheumatologist Network (EMEUNET). He is a Guest Associate Editor for Frontiers in Medicine (Rheumatology) and an Editorial Board member for Rheumatology Advances in Practice and Frontiers in Immunology.

The research conducted by Veena Taneja, Ph.D., centers on understanding the role of the immune system in the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with special emphasis on the differences in disease severity and in responses to therapy between men and women. Dr. Taneja's research team uses transgenic mice with a humanized immune system (HLA) to answer these questions. One goal for Dr. Taneja's team is to discover biomarkers that can predict a person's susceptibility to RA or that would guide how to best manage a patient's disease. Using their mouse models, Dr. Taneja's team has found significant differences in the immune systems of males and females that suggest ways to individualize treatments for patients with RA or other immune-related diseases. Dr. Taneja's research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, among others.

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heumatologist (Medical Leader: STZ-Expertise Centre Complex Gout/Viecuri MC/Venlo) and co-editor Clinical Rheumatology; researcher crystal imaging (co-founder human Crystal Research BV) and clinical researcher University Twente: PI in Treat2Target [urate targeted] vs Treat2Symptoms [symptom targeted] in Gout (ZonMW-funded GO TEST Overture) and recently in TNFi stop study (ZonMW-funded POET and POET-US)/ Dapansutrile (innovative NLRP3 inhibitor) proof of concept study in acute gout and PI international RCT (to be started) for acute gout PLUS novel indication; Clinical Advisory Board Olatec-Dapansutrile; Member Advisory Board Sarcoidosis Patient Society; ad hoc consultant Pharma; author on many publications on Gout, Biologics in RA.

My research group is interested in elucidating the genetic variants involved in the development of various systemic autoimmune diseases, such as scleroderma, giant cell arteritis and rheumatoid arthritis, among others. We have managed to contribute considerably to the current knowledge of the etiology of these pathologies and my group led the first complete genome association study (GWAS) in scleroderma (Radstake et al., Nat Genet, 2010), where we identified that the HLA, IRF5, STAT4 and CD217 were the main genese responsible for the development of the scleroderma. Currently, our research group leads two fascinating large-scale genetic studies involving a large number of European and North American countries. The first of the projects aims to decipher the genetic basis of giant cell arteritis, a systemic vasculitis that can present very serious complications such as blindness or stroke, through large-scale genetic studies. The second major project in which we are involved is to carry out a large GWAS study in systemic sclerosis that will allow us to comprehensively understand the genetic basis of this disease.

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Piercarlo Sarzi-Puttini graduated in Medicine from the University of Parma (Italy) (1981). He underwent specialist training in Rheumatology at the University of Milan (1985). He has also acquired the specialty in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation (1989) and Internal Medicine (1994). Since 1994 he worked as assistant and later as consultant at the Rheumatology Unit, L. Sacco University Hospital in Milan, Italy.. In 2007 Piercarlo Sarzi-Puttini was appointed Director of the Rheumatology Unit at the L. Sacco University Hospital. Since 2005 he is aggregate professor of Rheumatology at the University of Milan. Piercarlo Sarzi-Puttini has expertise in chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory arthritis. His current research interests focus on the development of therapies for musculoskeletal pain, mainly central sensatization syndromes and clinical and basic research studies on inflammatory arthritis. He is author of nearly 350 peer-reviewed papers (original papers and reviews) cited in pub-med and scopus with a total citation score of 7350 and a citation index of 46 . In 2013 he qualified as full professor in Rheumatology being nationally elegible for all the admission criteria.

Sylviane Muller obtained doctorates in molecular biology and in sciences at the University of Strasbourg and was a postdoctoral researcher in Freiburg (Germany) at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics. Her field of expertise covers autoimmunity, immuno-peptides and synthetic vaccines. She was chair and director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) Unit "Immunopathology and therapeutic chemistry" (2001-2017), and former director of the CNRS Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC) in Strasbourg (2016-2017). Her teams studied the molecular and cellular bases of the normal immune response and dysfunction in order to find novel strategies to treat autoimmune, tumoral and infectious diseases. In August 2018, she became an Emeritus research director (she was previously a distinguished class research director in CNRS) and continues to carry out research with her team in the laboratory of "Biotechnology and cell signaling", a joint research unit of the CNRS and the University of Strasbourg.