Arthritis Biology Program
The arthritis research group is engaged in a large number of important basic and clinical investigations that seek to identify the fundamental biologic mechanisms of disease, as well as to provide patients with access to innovative treatments. The group focuses on the mechanisms of cartilage damage in osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis. A pioneer in the study of how cartilage cells function and interact with other substances, the group has recently focused its attention on chondrocytes, the specialized cells that help maintain the structure of cartilage.

Lupus and Autoimmunity Research Program
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a seriously debilitating disease affecting more than a million Americans, mostly women in their 20s and 30s. To improve patients' quality of life, division researchers have undertaken several groundbreaking investigations, including:

• the development of a blood test that will give patients and their physicians advance notice of chronic disease ?are-ups.
• an NIH-funded multicenter trial of a corticosteroid treatment that was shown to be successful in preventing serious lupus ?ares. The Hospital for Joint Diseases was the lead site of the trial and recruited 154 lupus patients, who were followed over a period of ?ve years.
• an NIH-funded study designed to determine whether women with lupus have a greater rate of ?are-ups if they are also taking exogenous hormones for postmenopausal hormone replacement or as oral contraceptives. The 17-site study involved 500 patients and was co-directed by the Hospital for Joint Diseases and Johns Hopkins University. The data so far on hormone replacement have been extremely exciting in that they show no statistical difference in the number of severe ?ares whether the patients were taking hormone replacement or placebo. These ?ndings will have a signi?cant impact on the treatment of postmenopausal women with SLE. The results of the study on oral contraceptives will be available in early 2005.
• an investigation of the reasons some children born to lupus patients develop a cardiac electrical signaling defect known as heart block. The division's translational research group discovered that women with lupus produce terrain antibodies, which are suspected to cause heart block. Researchers in the ?elds of embryology, immunology, dermatology, and cardiology have been enlisted to help ?nd a way to bring this potentially life-threatening irregularity under control.

Peter D. Seligman Center for Advanced Therapeutics
An invaluable resource for patients and researchers alike, the Seligman Center is a 3,300-square-foot state-of-the-art translational research center established to facilitate clinical research in osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, osteoporosis, psoriatic arthritis, antiphospholipid syndrome, metabolic bone diseases, and autoimmune lung disease. Officially opened in June 2003, the Seligman Center became a satellite center of the NIH-sponsored NYU School of Medicine General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) in December 2003.

Patient Registries and Tissue Bank
The division has developed a tissue bank for blood, synovial ?uid, and synovial tissue from patients with different types of arthritis. This tissue will be used in basic science investigations of the pathogenesis of disease, as well as in translational research projects.

Osteoarthritis Biomarkers Network
In 2003 NYU School of Medicine's Division of Rheumatology was designated a site of the Osteoarthritis Biomarkers Network. As part of this study, division researchers are using surrogate tissues, such as peripheral blood cells for differential gene expression, to develop a prognostic biomarker in osteoarthritis.