Scientific Advisors

William E. Paul, MD – chairman

National Institutes of Health Distinguished Investigator
Chief, Laboratory of Immunology
NIAID-NIH
Chairman

Dr. William Paul is the preeminent voice of immunology in America. He became Chief of the Laboratory of Immunology at the National Institutes of Health in 1970, a position he still holds. From 1994 to 1997, Dr. Paul was director of the Office of AIDS Research at the NIH, where he increased the number of NIH-funded AIDS research grants by 50 percent. Dr. Paul is well known for his discovery of interleukin 4 (IL4), the principal regulator of allergic inflammatory diseases, and for his groundbreaking discovery in mechanisms and responses of T and B lymphocytes. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of numerous scientific honors.

Brian L. Kotzin, MD

Vice President, Global Clinical Development
Amgen, Inc.

Before his post at Amgen, Dr. Brian L. Kotzin was the Head of the Division of Clinical Immunology in the Department of Medicine, and the Director of the Denver Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado. He received his medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, as well as his postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology. He did his fellowship in rheumatology and medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Dr. Kotzin is an appointed member of the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) at NIH. He is an associate editor for Autoimmunity, a consulting editor for the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and serves on the editorial boards of Autoimmunity Reviews and Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.

Peter Lipsky, MD

Dr. Lipsky is internationally recognized for his research in B-cell biology in normal and autoimmune disease settings, T cell-macrophage interactions, mechanisms of immune cell activation, and the development of novel therapeutics for rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The author of over 625 articles, Dr. Lipsky is the past editor-in-chief of The Journal of Immunology and is currently editor-in-chief of Arthritis Research and Therapy and Nature Reviews Rheumatology. He received his M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine and went on to serve as a clinical associate at the NIH, and as an instructor and professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas (UT) Medical Center. He previously held the positions of director of UT’s Harold C. Simmons Arthritis Research Center and the Rheumatic Disease Division of the department of internal medicine, and was also the co-director of the Immunology Graduate Program (UT’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences). From 1999 until 2004, Dr Lipsky was the scientific director of NIAMS’ Intramural Research Program and was chief of the Autoimmunity Branch of NIAMS from 1999 until 2007.

Hugh O. McDevitt, MD

Professor of Immunology
Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. McDevitt is the Burt and Marion Avery Professor of Immunology at the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California. He received his medical degree from Harvard University School of Medicine in 1955, and completed his internship at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, and his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School's Department of Bacteriology and Immunology. Dr. McDevitt is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American College of Physicians Award for Research in Medical Sciences and the Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute of the NIH.

Michel Nussenzweig, MD, PhD

Sherman Fairchild Professor and Senior Physician
Rockefeller University

Dr. Nussenzweig is the Sherman Fairchild Professor and senior physician at Rockefeller University, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is one of the nation’s most distinguished contemporary immunologists, having made extremely important contributions to the understanding of the development and function of B lymphocytes and particularly has established many of the mechanism underlying the processes through which cells capable of making auto-antibodies are normally eliminated. In addition, his studies on the biology of dendritic cells give very important insights into the mechanisms through which T cell tolerance is induced. Dr. Nussenzweig is the recipient of numerous professional honors and awards, and serves as editor of several leading professional journals including the Journal of Experimental Medicine and the Journal of Immunological Methods. The New York University School of Medicine graduate completed his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and his postdoctoral training in genetics at Harvard University. More

Virginia Pascual, MD

Investigator
Baylor Institute for Immunology Research

Dr. Pascual is an investigator at the Baylor Institute of Immunology Research. Her laboratory focuses broadly on two areas: 1) understanding the pathogenesis of pediatric autoimmune diseases and 2) identifying biomarkers to follow patients in the clinical setting. She is the director of two NIH-funded centers (the Center of Research Translation, and an Autoimmunity Center of Excellence), both of which bring investigators in basic and translational research together to work toward better understanding lupus and other autoimmune diseases such as systemic arthritis, deramtomyositis, and multiple sclerosis, and strive to find novel therapies for these illnesses. Dr. Pascual received her M.D. from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain. She completed a pediatrics residency at the Hopital 12 de Ocubre in Madrid, and a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular immunology and a clinical fellowship in pediatric rheumatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. From 1998 through 2004 she was the director of the Pediatric Rheumatology Division at UT Southwestern. Dr. Pascual continues to take care of children with rheumatic diseases in the Arthritis Clinic at Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children in Dallas.

David S. Pisetsky, MD, PhD, co-chair

Professor of Medicine and Immunology
Duke University Medical Center

Dr. Pisetsky is Professor of Medicine and Immunology at the Duke University Medical Center, and Chief of Rheumatology at the Durham Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital. A leading investigator in the field of autoimmunity, Dr. Pisetsky has spent years researching the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus and the immunological properties of nuclear macromolecules. He has published almost 300 papers and chapters and, in 2001, was awarded the Howley Prize from the Arthritis Foundation for his work. Dr. Pisetsky served as editor of Arthritis and Rheumatism, the leading journal in the field of rheumatology, from 200 to 2005, and currently is the physician editor of The Rheumatologist.  Dr. Pisetsky received his Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Benjamin D. Schwartz, MD, PhD

Professor of Clinical Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine

Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, a specialist in clinical research, has been Professor of Clinical Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine since 1991, and Attending Physician at the Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis since 1976. He formed the Camden Group in 1999, where he is now CEO, to assist biotech and pharmaceutical companies in designing clinical research programs. Prior to this Dr. Schwartz was Senior Director of Clinical Research at Searle Research and Development. He is the author of more than 150 research articles and textbook chapters.

Lee S. Simon, MD

Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School

In addition to his post at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Lee Simon is Head Regulatory Consultant and Scientific Advisory Board member for MEDACorp, a consulting firm. Previously, Dr. Simon served as the Division Director of the Arthritis, Analgesic & Ophthalmologic Drug Product Division at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1976. He was a Fellow in Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a Research Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Simon is a Section Editor on Osteoarthritis for Current Rheumatology Reports; and serves on the editorial boards and as a reviewer for numerous scientific publications. In received the Distinguished Service Award from the American College of Rheumatology, the Scientific Leadership Award from the Lupus Research Institute and the SLE Foundation, and the Quality Performance Award and the Faculty Recognition Award from the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

ADVISORS AT LARGE

Betty Diamond, MD

Chief, Autoimmune Disease Center
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
North Shore-LIJ Health System

Dr. Betty Diamond is Chief of the Autoimmune Disease Center at North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York. She is also a faculty member of Columbia University College of Physician & Surgeons. Dr. Diamond received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1973. She did a residency in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, and a post-doctoral fellowship in Immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Diamond's research has focused on the induction and pathogenicity of anti-DNA antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus. She received the Outstanding Investigator Award of the American College of Rheumatology in 2001, the Lee Howley Award from the Arthritis Foundation in 2002, and the Recognition Award from the National Association of MD-PhD Programs in 2004.

Robert A. Eisenberg, MD

Professor, Division of Rheumatology
Department of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Dr. Robert A. Eisenberg, a Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Pennsylvania since the mid-1990s, earned his M.D. at Stanford University in 1971 following graduation from Haverford College. His involvement in rheumatologic diseases is extensive, as he functions as associate editor for the Journal of Clinical Immunology and has also served on the editorial boards of such titles as the Journal of Immunology, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Arthritis and Rheumatism. He has been an active member of such organizations as the American Association of Immunologists, the American College of Rheumatology, the Association of American Physicians, the Kunkel Society, the Clinical Immunology Society and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Research interests revolve around the cellular, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms of systemic autoimmunity-including novel therapeutic approaches-and his laboratory has used spontaneous and experimentally induced models of systemic autoimmunty in mice to illuminate the cellular and molecular deficiencies in immunoregulation involved in this process. A recent focus has been on the role of B cells in this model.

Mark Shlomchik, MD, PhD

Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Immunobiology,
Yale University School of Medicine

In addition to his post at Yale University, Dr. Mark Shlomchik is the Associate Director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Blood Bank. Dr. Shlomchik received his MD and PhD in 1989 from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Hospital of University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Shlomchik has been published in the Journal of Immunology, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Current Opinion in Immunology. He is a member of the Henry Kunkel Society and the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and was the 2005 Co-Chair of the Keystone Symposium on B Cell Development. His long-term research interest is in the development and regulation of B lymphocytes in autoimmunity, B cell memory and transplant-related immunopathology.