• Rheumatology
• Internal Medicine

• Associate Professor

Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, scleroderma, autoantbodies, systemic lupus erythematosis

Autoimmunity, innate immunity, tissue targeting, programmed cell death, pathogenesis of disease in scleroderma, SLE and mixed connective tissue disease.

• Tissue targeting of anti-RNP autoimmunity: Effects of T cells and myeloid dendritic cells in a murine model.
• CD4+ T Cells Target Epitopes Residing within the RNA-Binding Domain of the U1-70-kDa Small Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Autoantigen and Have Restricted TCR Diversity in an HLA-DR4-Transgenic Murine Model of Mixed Connective Tissue Disease.
• Clinical and immunologic manifestations of mixed connective tissue disease in a Miami population compared to a Midwestern US Caucasian population.
• Immune effects of autoantigen-associated RNA.
• Serological and clinical characterization of anti-dsDNA and anti-PM/Scl double-positive patients.
• Differential tissue targeting of autoimmunity manifestations by autoantigen-associated Y RNAs.
• Anti-ribonucleoprotein antibodies mediate enhanced lung injury following mesenteric ischemia/reperfusion in Rag-1(-/-) mice.
• A murine model of mixed connective tissue disease induced with U1 small nuclear RNP autoantigen.
• Autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of mixed connective tissue disease.
• Patients with antibodies to both PmScl and dsDNA.
• U1 RNA induces innate immunity signaling.