NIAMS faculty lead the way in innovative research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases. They are listed alphabetically below, followed by the leads of our core facilities.
Timothy Bhattacharyya, M.D.
Head, Clinical and Investigative Orthopedics Surgery Unit
[email protected]
Dr. Bhattacharyya's research involves studying and analyzing orthopedic outcomes using a variety of clinical data sources. His team is interested in hip fractures, hip infections, joint replacement, atypical femur fractures, and nonunions.
Isaac Brownell, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Investigator, Dermatology Branch
Chief, Cutaneous Development and Carcinogenesis Section
[email protected]
Dr. Brownell is a board-certified dermatologist and a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology. He directs a research program that includes basic, translational, and clinical investigations of skin homeostasis and skin cancer.
Robert Colbert, M.D., Ph.D.
Clinical Director, NIAMS
Head, Clinical Care and Research
Chief, Pediatric Translational Research Branch
[email protected]
Dr. Colbert's research focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of chronic inflammation and its impact on the structural remodeling of bone in spondyloarthritic diseases, such as ankylosing spondylitis.
Edward W. Cowen, M.D., M.H.Sc.
Senior Clinician, Dermatology Branch
Head, Dermatology Consultation Service
[email protected]
Dr. Cowen leads the NIH Dermatology Consultation Service, conducts independent and collaborative research, and oversees the continuing medication education-accredited Dermatology Grand Rounds, Branch Clinical Fellowship, and resident education programs.
Luis M. Franco, M.D.
Earl Stadtman Investigator, NIH Distinguished Scholar
Chief, Functional Immunogenetics Section
[email protected]
Dr. Franco's research applies functional genomics approaches to the solution of medically important questions related to the immune system.
Massimo Gadina, Ph.D.
Director of Translational Research
Chief, Translational Immunology Section
[email protected]
Dr. Gadina's research interests are focused on immune-mediated diseases and specifically, the biology of cytokines and their relative signaling pathways. His translational work is also focused on autoinflammatory diseases and other inflammatory diseases.
Brian Glancy, Ph.D.
Earl Stadtman Investigator
Chief, Muscle Energetics Laboratory
[email protected]
Dr. Glancy's research focuses on determining how mitochondria are optimized within muscle cells to help maintain energy homeostasis during the large change in energy demand caused by muscle contraction.
Peter Grayson, M.D.
Investigator
Chief, Vasculitis Translational Research Program
[email protected]
Dr. Grayson's research interests include clinical and translational research in vasculitis with a focus on biomarker discovery, gene expression profiling, clinical trials, and disease classification.
Markus Hafner, Ph.D.
Senior Investigator
Chief, RNA Molecular Biology Laboratory
[email protected]
Dr. Hafner's research focuses on dissecting the composition of ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) involved in cellular RNA transport and control of RNA stability. This is a prerequisite for understanding the consequences of dysregulation and/or mutation of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), and/or their target RNA-binding sites in disease.
Sarfaraz Hasni, M.D.
Staff Clinician
Chief, Lupus Clinical Trials Unit
[email protected]
Dr. Hasni conducts innovative translational and clinical research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of lupus.
Mariana Kaplan, M.D.
Deputy Scientific Director, NIAMS
NIH Distinguished Investigator
Chief, Systemic Autoimmunity Branch
Chief, Lupus Clinical Trials Unit
[email protected]
Dr. Kaplan's research focuses on unraveling the fundamental mechanisms that lead to the development and perpetuation of systemic autoimmune disorders, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and their associated organ damage.
Hanna Kim, M.D., M.S.
Assistant Clinical Investigator, Pediatric Translational Research Branch
Chief, Juvenile Myositis Therapeutic and Translational Studies Section
[email protected]
Dr. Kim's research investigates the pathogenetic role of interferon and identifies treatment response and prognostic biomarkers in juvenile myositis.
Heidi H. Kong, M.D., M.H.Sc
Senior Investigator, Dermatology Branch
Chief, Cutaneous Microbiome and Inflammation Section
[email protected]
Dr. Kong's research focuses on the skin microbiome in healthy individuals with the goal of expanding our understanding of host-microbe interactions. Her section also works to understand the role of microbes in eczematous skin diseases, including atopic dermatitis.
Laura B. Lewandowski, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Investigator, Systemic Autoimmunity Branch
Chief, Lupus Genomics and Global Health Disparities Section
[email protected]
Dr. Lewandowski's research studies the genetics of early-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients in populations around the globe and the genetic drivers of severe disease and inflammation in diverse cohorts worldwide.
Andrew Mammen, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Investigator
Chief, Muscle Disease Section
[email protected]
Dr. Mammen's research focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of disease in different types of myositis, including dermatomyositis, polymyositis, statin-triggered necrotizing myopathy, and inclusion body myositis. The ultimate goal is to establish more effective treatments for patients with all forms of myositis.
Naoko Mizuno, Ph.D.
Earl Stadtman Investigator
Chief, Laboratory of Structural Cell Biology
[email protected]
Dr. Mizuno's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms governing specialized cell shapes, such as neurons, platelets or activated immune cells, and specific cancer cells.
Maria Morasso, Ph.D.
Emeritus Investigator
Chief, Laboratory of Skin Biology
[email protected]
Dr. Morasso is an emeritus investigator. Her laboratory previously focused on characterizing the transcriptional regulatory networks and signaling pathways linked to epidermal differentiation and wound healing.
Keisuke Nagao, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Investigator, Dermatology Branch
Chief, Cutaneous Leukocyte Biology Section
[email protected]
Dr. Nagao’s research focuses on cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate immunological and structural homeostasis in the skin.
Michael Ombrello, M.D.
Investigator
Chief, Translational Genetics and Genomics Section
[email protected]
Dr. Ombrello's research applies integrated genomic approaches to investigate autoinflammatory and rheumatic diseases, seeking to understand the mechanisms through which disease-associated genetic variants participate in disease pathophysiology.
John O'Shea, M.D.
Scientific Director, NIAMS
Senior Investigator
Chief, Molecular Immunology and Inflammation Branch
Acting Chief, Laboratory of Molecular Immunogenetics, Genomics and Immunity Section
[email protected]
Dr. O'Shea’s research studies how the engagement of cytokine receptors transduce signals that, in turn, regulate transcription factors and epigenetic events to modulate gene expression. Another goal is to understand how T cells participate in host defense and contribute to the pathogenesis of immune-mediated diseases.
Vittorio Sartorelli, M.D.
Deputy Scientific Director, NIAMS
Senior Investigator
Chief, Laboratory of Muscle Stem Cells and Gene Regulation
[email protected]
Dr. Sartorelli's research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms subtending specification, differentiation, and regeneration of skeletal muscle cells. His lab pursues these studies by combining cellular and molecular biological approaches, genomic and proteomic-based systems-biology, bioinformatics, and animal models.
Paul Wingfield, Ph.D.
Senior Investigator
Chief, Protein Expression Laboratory
[email protected]
Dr. Wingfield supports intramural NIH scientists in studying the structure and function of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) proteins.
Core Facility Leads
Stefania Dell'Orso, Ph.D.
Director, Office of Science and Technology
Chief, Genomic Technology Section
[email protected]
Dr. Dell'Orso's section is a multi-disciplinary genomics facility that supports NIAMS investigators with the latest on DNA sequencing and library preparation technologies.
Davide Randazzo, Ph.D.
Chief, Light Imaging Section
[email protected]
Dr. Randazzo focuses on the use of light microscopy techniques to elucidate poorly understood aspects of skeletal muscle cell biology, i.e. the organization of microtubules and their associated subcellular organelles, particularly the Golgi complex. In addition, his section strives to apply new modalities of light microscopy to the quantitative analysis of skeletal muscle pathologies.
Hong-Wei Sun, Ph.D.
Chief, Biodata Mining and Discovery Section
[email protected]
Dr. Sun focuses on applying computational approaches of data sciences to biomedical research.