Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2005

Mentor: Nancy Olsen
Department: Internal Medicine/Rheumatology
Room number: Y5.310
Mail Code: 8884
Phone number: 89049
E-mail: nancy.olsen@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Dallas Regional Autoimmune Disease Registry

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 0103-061

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects): Patient-based research

Brief Description of Project:
The long term goals of this project are to understand risk factors for development of autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and multiple sclerosis. Enrollment of patients in the registry includes subjects in whom these disorders have been diagnosed, their immediate family members and other individuals considered at high risk. The latter group includes those in whom tests such as antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) are present but who do not satisfy criteria for a definite autoimmune disease like lupus. At present, over 300 subjects have been enrolled and the goal is to enroll 1000 individuals. Each patient requires thorough clinical phenotyping with collection of history, comorbid conditions and medications. In addition samples of blood are collected for storage and later analysis. These stored samples will be used to prepare DNA, RNA and serum for measurement of known and emerging biomarkers. Some fresh blood samples are collected for flow cytometric analysis of markers that are expressed by lymphocytes. A large database is being constructed to permit correlative analyses between different measures and to compare different phenotypic subgroups. We envision creation of a risk profile for autoimmunity that will be helpful in development of approaches to early diagnosis and treatment to improve long term outcomes.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students: I am the recipient of a Clinician Scholar Educator Award (2003-2006) from the American College of Rheumatology. This award is given in recognition of educational activities with trainees. In previous work at Vanderbilt University (1985-2004), I was the sponsor of 6 medical students who won travel awards for presentation of abstracts at the national meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. Several of these individuals also published their work. Examples of these publications are listed, with the name of the student indicated by bold type:

Viselli SM, Stanziale S, Shults K, Kovacs WJ, Olsen NJ: Castration alters peripheral immune function in normal male mice. Immunology 84:337-342, 1995.

Park JH, Phothimat P, Oates CT, Hernanz-Schulman M, Olsen NJ: Detection of metabolic abnormalities in muscles of patients with fibromyalgia using P-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy Arthritis Rheum 41:406-413, 1998.

Park JH, Niermann KH, Ryder NM, Nelson AE, Das A, Lawton AR, Hernanz-Schulman M, Olsen NJ: Muscle abnormalities in juvenile dermatomyositis patients: P-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies. Arthritis Rheum 43:2359-67, 2000.

Niermann KJ, Olsen N, Park JH: Magnesium abnormalities of skeletal muscle in dermatomyositis and juvenile dermatomyositis. Arthritis Rheum 46:475-488, 2002.

Maas, K, Chan S, Parker J, Slater A, Moore J, Olsen N, Aune TM: Molecular portrait of human autoimmune disease. J. Immunol, 169:10-14, 2002.

Maas K, Westfall M, Pietenpol J, Olsen NJ, Aune T: Reduced p53 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis is associated with loss of radiation-induced apoptosis. Arthritis Rheum, in press 2005.

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