Top Researchers Identify Areas for Autoimmune Disease Research at AARDA-Hosted Colloquium

Clinton Township, MI (June 2, 2021) — The American Autoimmune Related Disease Association (AARDA) hosted the 15th Noel Rose Scientific Colloquium on May 1, 2021, bringing together high-level researchers from different areas and specialties. The colloquium focused on scientific information exchange and identified areas of opportunity for future autoimmune disease research. Participants heard directly from leading autoimmune experts, who shared how their past work on autoimmune diseases helped them pivot to study, understand, and generate hypotheses on how to combat the COVID-19 virus.

Experts shared their research into topics at the intersection of autoimmunity and COVID-19 through a series of twenty-minute presentations, including:

• Judith A. James, M.D., Ph.D., Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation Vice President of Clinical Affairs
• David Alan Hanauer, M.D., Director of Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research Informatics Program, Associate Professor of Learning Health Science, Associate Professor of Informatics, School of Information and Clinical and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan
• Sharon Fox, M.D., Associate Director of Research and Development in the Department of Pathology at LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, and Anatomic Pathologist as Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health System
• Puja Mehta, M.D., University College London, Center for Inflammation Ryan Institute
• Carlo Selmi, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Residency School of Emergency Medicine, Humanitas University
• Ignacio Sanz, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Rheumatology at Emory University School of Medicine, Director of the Lowance Center of Human Immunology at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
• Jean-Laurent Casanova, M.D., Ph.D., Levy Family Professor, Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Head of the St. Giles Lab of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases
• Jason Knight, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, and Associate Director of the Lupus Program at the University of Michigan
• Yogen Kanthi, M.D., Vascular Medicine Lasker Investigator at the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute
• Aaron Ring, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine
• Julia Y. Wang, Founder and CEO of Curandis
• Alexis Combs, Ph.D., UCSF Disease to Biology CoLab director
• Russell P. Tracy, Ph.D., FAHA, University Distinguished Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Biochemistry, Director of the University of Vermont Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry Research
• PJ Utz, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Stanford University

The event ended with a capstone discussion and the following conclusions:

1. Experts generally agreed that there is a high degree of overlap between the study of autoimmune diseases and COVID-19.
2. Guests affirmed their commitment to both a collaborative and holistic approach to the study of autoimmune diseases and COVID-19.
3. AARDA successfully provided a platform for the nation’s top autoimmune disease researchers to share their work and cross-pollinate their ideas.

For more information on the Noel Rose Scientific Colloquium, read the full report here.