| Rheumatology Tom.Appleton@sjhc.london.on.ca |
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 TOM APPLETON, MD, PhD, FRCPC, Assistant ProfessorDr. Appleton is a Rheumatologist and Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute at the Rheumatology Centre at St. Joseph’s Health Care, London. He was recruited back to Western as Clinician-Scientist and Assistant Professor of Medicine in October, 2016. He has focused expertise in basic/translational medical research, musculoskeletal ultrasound, and clinical research, including clinical trials. His research focus is in osteoarthritis (OA), the most common joint disease world-wide. Dr. Appleton is the director of the Western Rheumatology Multidisciplinary Specialty Centre for Osteoarthritis and the principal investigator of the Western Ontario Registry for Early Osteoarthritis (WOREO) Knee Cohort study. His work in translational biology using transcriptomics and advanced molecular biology techniques in animal models of post-traumatic knee osteoarthritis led to the discovery of transforming growth factor alpha as a cartilage-derived determinant of early joint damage. This discovery has since been confirmed by others in multi-continent genome-wide association studies for both hip and knee osteoarthritis. Dr. Appleton is recognized internationally as an emerging expert in OA, including the pathogenesis of early OA and OA phenotyping. He has been an invited speaker at the largest clinical international Rheumatology and OA research-focused conferences, including the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the Osteoarthritis Research Society international (OARSI). His translational biology work has resulted in more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in top arthritis and Rheumatology journals and presentations at national and international conferences. Dr. Appleton currently holds independent operating grants as nominated principal investigator from the Ontario Innovation Fund, the Arthritis Society of Canada, and the Western Bone and Joint Institute, and is the site principal investigator on a national multicenter randomized controlled trial of disease modifying treatment for knee osteoarthritis. He currently supervises a research team of 9 post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate trainees and research associates. Dr. Appleton is also an investigator with provincial and national research initiatives including the Canadian early ArthriTis CoHort Study (CATCH), a prospective study of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. He has been recognized as a Future Leader in Rheumatology by the Canadian Rheumatology Association and the United States Bone and Joint Initiative. He is currently Chair of the Annual Scientific Meeting Planning Committee for the Canadian Rheumatology Association and a member of the board of directors of the Ontario Rheumatology Association. Keywords: Cartilage Cell signalling Clinical Trials Early osteoarthritis Inflammation Osteoarthritis Rheumatology Synovitis Ultrasound | |||
| Rheumatology Lillian.Barra@sjhc.london.on.ca |
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 LILLIAN BARRA, MD, FRCPC, Associate ProfessorDr. Lillian Barra is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, cross-appointed to the Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She completed her M.D. and Postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the University of Western Ontario and her Master of Public Health at Harvard University. She established the first interdisciplinary vasculitis clinic (IVASC) in Southwestern Ontario and is a member of the administrative board for CanVasc, a national network aimed at establishing research and education programs in vasculitis. The focus of her research is understanding the pathogenesis and impact of chronic autoimmune vascular diseases, specifically rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated cardiovascular disease and systemic vasculitis. The research is translational involving humanized mouse models of RA and atherosclerosis, biomaker studies, evidence synthesis and observational epidemiologic studies with the establishment and participation in various local, national and international cohort studies. Keywords: Animal models Autoantibodies Cardiovascular disease Immunoepidemiology Immunopathogenesis Meta-analysis Observational cohorts Rheumatoid arthritis Systematic reviews Systemic vasculitis | |||
| Rheumatology Pari.Basharat@sjhc.london.on.ca |
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 PARI BASHARAT, MD, FRCPC, Associate ProfessorDr. Basharat completed her Internal Medicine and Rheumatology fellowships at the University of Western Ontario in 2011 and 2013. She also completed a fellowship in Inflammatory Myopathies at Johns Hopkins University in 2014. Dr. Basharat has a special interest in inflammatory myopathies. She runs a specialized multi-disciplinary clinic for Inflammatory Myositis bi-monthly with Dr. Shannon Venance, a neuromuscular specialist from the Department of Neurology. This clinic serves to enhance the care and assessment of patients with possible autoimmune muscle disorders. Dr. Basharat is also involved in research at the local, national and international levels in autoimmune myopathies and recently received the AMOSO Opportunities Fund Award from the Department of Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, for research in this area. She recently published a review on Autoimmune Necrotizing Myopathies and will be involved in the Canadian Inflammatory Myopathy Study Group research initiative, a national research network and database to enhance research in the area of inflammatory myopathies. Keywords: Autoimmune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy Dermatomyositis Inflammatory Myopathy Polymyositis Rheumatology | |||
| Rheumatology Tristan.Boyd@sjhc.london.on.ca |
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 TRISTAN BOYD, MD, FRCPC, Assistant ProfessorDr. Boyd completed his internal medicine residency and fellowship in rheumatology at Western University in 2012 and 2014, respectively. He completed postgraduate research training in Psoriatic Arthritis at the Centre for Innovative Therapy at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 2015 before joining the Division of Rheumatology an Assistant Professor. He has a particular interest in psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and enteropathic arthritis. He is a member of the International Psoriasis and Arthritis Research Team (IPART) and Spondyloarthritis Research Consortium of Canada (SPARCC). He is actively recruiting patients to both patient registries and has received pilot project funding from SPARCC for current research projects. Keywords: Ankylosing spondylitis Enteropathic arthritis Psoriatic arthritis | |||
| Rheumatology ecairns@uwo.ca |
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 EWA CAIRNS, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology Dr. Cairns received her PhD degree in 1987 from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. Subsequently, she did 3 years of postdoctoral training at Toronto Western Hospital where she worked with Dr. Katherine Siminovitch. In 1990, Dr. Cairns came back to London Ontario to begin her appointment as a faculty member in the Departments of Medicine (Division of Rheumatology) and Microbiology & Immunology. Currently she is a Full Professor in these departments. She is also an Associate Scientist of the Lawson Research Institute, a Member of the Program of Experimental Medicine, a Member of the Joint Motion Program and a Member of the Centre for Human Immunology. Dr. Cairns is an immunologist who studies mechanisms responsible for the development of chronic rheumatic diseases. She currently focuses specifically on Rheumatoid Arthritis. Her research emphasis is on determining “why” some but not other people develop this disease, “when” the disease develops and “how” to stop its progression or development. Dr. Cairns’ major scientific contributions to this topic include demonstration that: 1) certain proteins (citrullinated proteins) can trigger an immune response leading to arthritis in some but not all subjects; 2) development of arthritis is linked to the presence of a specific gene; and 3) arthritis can be prevented or its progression stopped by blocking immune responses to the citrullinated proteins. These cutting edge research findings were published in high impact journals such as the Journal of Immunology, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Journal of Rheumatology and Arthritis & Rheumatism. Dr. Cairns served as a grant review member on the Immunology and Transplantation Committee of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and receives continuous research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Arthritis Society of Canada and the Calder Foundation. Dr. Cairns’ research program attracts many undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows. Her contributions to research supervision and teaching have been recognized by the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry from which she received the Dean’s Award of Excellence in Graduate and Postgraduate Education in 2008. Keywords: Autoimmunity Immunology Rheumatoid Arthritis Rheumatoid Arthritis, Genetics and Immune Responses to Citrullinated Antigens | |||
| Rheumatology Janet.Pope@sjhc.london.on.ca |
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 JANET POPE, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Dr. Janet Pope is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Schulich School of Medicine, London, Ontario, Canada. She is the Division Head in Rheumatology. She completed her M.D. and Fellowship in Internal Medicine at the University of Western Ontario and a Fellowship in Rheumatology and Masters of Public Health at Boston University. Dr. Pope is recognized as an international expert in scleroderma (systemic sclerosis) research. Her research is focused on improving the lives of patients especially with RA, Scleroderma and SLE. Her most significant contributions are in research collaborations in disease cohorts, designing trials, mentorship and leadership. One of her most important research collaborations was the development of systemic sclerosis subset classification criteria. This research was conducted with the input from a number of multi-national experts. She has also designed and conducted as the PI many trials in scleroderma, Raynaud’s, and RA and has done meta-analyses on many drug treatments for Raynaud’s and scleroderma. She is the member of CaNIOS (Canadian Network for Improved Outcomes in SLE) and is a founding member of the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group (CSRG), is on the executive of the Canadian Rheumatology Research Consortium (CRRC), contributes to Advisory Boards (in scleroderma, RA and lupus), and is a member of the Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium (SCTC). She has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles, 15 chapters, 700 abstracts and mentored more than 125 trainees. Keywords: Cohorts Meta-analysis Pragmatic Rheumatoid Arthritis Scleroderma SLE Trials | |||
| Rheumatology gina.rohekar@sjhc.london.on.ca |
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 GINA ROHEKAR, MD, FRCPC, Associate ProfessorDr. Gina Rohekar completed medical school at the University of Western Ontario. She went on to pursue rheumatology as a career. She trained at Queen’s University for General Internal Medicine and the University of Toronto for her rheumatology fellowship. She has recently completed a Master’s Degree in Clinical Epidemiology. Her research interests include rheumatoid arthritis, patient outcome measures, lupus and scleroderma. Keywords: Database research Epidemiology patient outcome measures Rheumatoid Arthritis | |||
| Rheumatology sherry.rohekar@sjhc.london.on.ca |
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 SHERRY ROHEKAR, MD, FRCPC, Associate ProfessorDr. Rohekar completed medical school at the University of Western Ontario, where her work with the rheumatology department inspired her to persue rheumatology as a career. She completed a fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Toronto, with career development support from the Arthritis Society. She has recently completed a Master’s of Science in clinical epidemiology and is using this to perform clinical research. She has a particular interest in ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. Keywords: Ankylosing spondylitis Inflammatory bowel disease related inflammatory arthritis and reactive arthritis Psoriatic arthritis Spondyloarthritis | |||
