I participated as Site Principal Investigator in treatment trials as detailed below. I am currently participating in the first multicenter pediatric lupus treatment trial funded by the NIH, a phase one industry trial of a novel biologic agent for therapy resistant systemic onset juvenile arthritis, an industry sponsored phase III trial for a novel biologic agent in treatment resistant polyarticular juvenile arthritis, and an NIH funded trial assessing outcome measures in pediatric lupus. The use of standardized information collection and standardized outcome measures at routine clinic visits has facilitated retrospective chart reviews. I have reported at national and international meetings original observations quantifying and characterizing fatigue in pediatric lupus and reporting high incidence of silent aspiration in new onset juvenile dermatomyositis patients. I also collaborated with Virginia Pascual, M.D., providing the clinical components of these studies. Most recently, we compared the clinical response of systemic onset juvenile arthritis patients that I treated with an IL-1 blocker with microarray data from Dr. Pascual?s laboratory. I presented the results of this collaboration in podium presentations at the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society in September 2005 and at the American College of Rheumatology in November 2005.
