The human immune system is critical for protection against infections and cancer, but diseases of the immune system can be devastating. These include allergic responses, immunodeficiencies and immune reactions directed against self, called autoimmunity. Autoimmune diseases afflict at least one in twelve Americans and are a leading cause of disability and early death in young women of child-bearing age. Our mission is to improve the lives of patients through a continuum of basic mechanistic studies, clinical research, industry collaborations and clinical care.

Scientists in Arthritis and Clinical Immunology focus on understanding systemic autoimmunity and deciphering basic immunologic concepts. Our studies address the etiology, pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of complex human autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory myositis, multiple sclerosis (MS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Our studies on immune development and mechanisms of immune protection or perturbation have broad impact on immune responses to vaccination or infection.

Our investigators use a wide range of genetic, genomic, proteomic, immunologic and molecular approaches. To facilitate these patient-oriented research activities, some of our scientists are also developing novel methods to mine large datasets and evaluate complex human genetic diseases.

In addition, the Arthritis and Clinical Immunology program houses resources that are essential for many investigators in our program and in the larger autoimmune disease research community. These include the Biorepository Core, Clinical Immunology Laboratory, Myositis Testing Laboratory, Human Antibody Core, Quantitative Analysis Core, Clinical Genomics Center and Phenotyping Core. Many of these cores were established and funded through ongoing federal grants, leveraging equipment purchased and serviced by OMRF. Our investigators also benefit from departmental journal clubs, seminar series, intentional mentorship and collaborative, multi-investigator scientific projects.

Arthritis & Clinical Immunology

Judith A. James, M.D., Ph.D.
Member and Program Chair

Mark Coggeshall, Ph.D.
Member

A. Darise Farris, Ph.D.
Member

Swapan K. Nath, Ph.D.
Member

Robert H. “Hal” Scofield, M.D.
Member

Xiao-Hong Sun, Ph.D.
Member

Linda Thompson, Ph.D.
Member

José Alberola-Ila, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Member

Umesh Deshmukh, Ph.D.
Associate Member

Susan Kovats, Ph.D.
Associate Member

Robert Axtell, Ph.D.
Assistant Member

Ira N. Targoff, M.D.
Assistant Member

Harini Bagavant, Ph.D.
Research Associate Member

Joel Guthridge, Ph.D.
Research Associate Member

Melissa E. Munroe, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Assistant Member

Narcis Popescu, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Member

Kenneth Smith, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Member

Division of Genomics & Data Sciences

Patrick Gaffney, M.D.
Member
Division Head

Kathy (Moser) Sivils, Ph.D.
Member

Courtney Gray Montgomery, Ph.D.
Associate Member

Jonathan D. Wren, Ph.D.
Associate Member

Christopher J. Lessard, Ph.D.
Assistant Member

Astrid Rasmussen, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Associate Member

Indra Adrianto, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Member

Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence

Gabriel Pardo, M.D.
Associate Member
Director

Tania Reyna, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Member

Rheumatology Center of Excellence

Eliza Chakravarty, M.D.
Associate Member

Joan T. Merrill, M.D.
Member

Aikaterini (Katherine) Thanou, M.D.
Assistant Member

Cristina Arriens, M.D., MSCS
Clinical Assistant Member

2017

Aberle T, Bourn RL, Chen H, Roberts VC, Guthridge JM, Bean K, Robertson JM, Sivils KL, Rasmussen A, Liles M, Merrill JT, Harley JB, Olsen NJ, Karp DR, James JA. Use of SLICC criteria in a large, diverse lupus registry enables SLE classification of a subset of ACR-designated subjects with incomplete lupus. Lupus Sci Med. 2017 Mar 17;4(1):e000176. eCollection 2017.  PMCID: PMC5372139

Aberle T, Bourn RL, Munroe ME, Chen H, Roberts VC, Guthridge JM, Bean K, Robertson JM, Sivils KL, Rasmussen A, Liles M, Merrill JT, Harley JB, Olsen NJ, Karp DR, James JA. Clinical and serological features distinguish patients with incomplete lupus classification from systemic lupus erythematosus patients and controls. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2017 Jan 24. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 28118528

Arriens C, Chen S, Karp DR, Saxena R, Sambandam K, Chakravarty E, James JA, Merrill JT. Prognostic significance of repeat biopsy in lupus nephritis: Histopathologic worsening and a short time between biopsies is associated with significantly increased risk for end stage renal disease and death. Clin Immunol. 2016 Dec 3. pii: S1521-6616(16)30668-4.  Epub ahead of print.  PMCID: PMC5457715

Arriens C, Wren JD, Munroe ME, Mohan C. Systemic lupus erythematosus biomarkers: the challenging quest. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2017 Apr 1;56(suppl_1):i32-i45.  PMID: 28013203

*Barboza E, Hudson J, Chang WP, Kovats S, Towner RA, Silasi-Mansat R, Lupu F, Kent C, Griffin TM. Pro-fibrotic infrapatellar fat pad remodeling without M1-macrophage polarization precedes knee osteoarthritis in diet-induced obese mice. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Jun;69(6):1221-32. PMCID: PMC5449220

Berkovich R, Bakshi R, Amezcua L, Axtell RC, Cen SY, Tauhid S, Neema M, Steinman L. Adrenocorticotropic hormone versus methylprednisolone added to interferon β in patients with multiple sclerosis experiencing breakthrough disease: a randomized, rater-blinded trial. Ther Adv Neurol Disord. 2017 Jan;10(1):3-17. PMCID: PMC5400152

Buckley DA, Jennings EM, Burke NN, Roche M, McInerney V, Wren JD, Finn DP, McHugh PC. Erratum to: The Development of Translational Biomarkers as a Tool for Improving the Understanding, Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Neuropathic Pain. Mol Neurobiol. 2017 Jul 1. [Epub ahead of print]  PMID: 28669124

Carapito R, Gottenberg JE, Kotova I, Untrau M, Michel S, Naegely L, Aouadi I, Kwemou M, Paul N, Pichot A, Locke J, Bowman SJ, Griffiths B, Sivils KL, Sibilia J, Inoko H, Micelli-Richard C, Nocturne G, Ota M, Ng WF, Mariette X, Bahram S. A new MHC-linked susceptibility locus for primary Sjögren's syndrome: MICA. Hum Mol Genet. 2017 Apr 4. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 28379387

Choi MY, Clarke AE, St Pierre Y, Hanly JG, Urowitz MB, Romero-Diaz J, Gordon C, Bae SC, Bernatsky S, Wallace DJ, Merrill JT, Isenberg DA, Rahman A, Ginzler EM, Petri M, Bruce IN, Dooley MA, Fortin P, Gladman DD, Sanchez-Guerrero J, Steinsson K, Ramsey-Goldman R, Khamashta MA, Aranow C, Alarcón GS, Manzi S, Nived O, Zoma AA, van Vollenhoven RF, Ramos-Casals M, Ruiz-Irastorza G, Lim SS, Kalunian KC, Inanc M, Kamen DL, Peschken CA, Jacobsen S, Askanase A, Buyon J, Mahler M, Fritzler MJ. The prevalence and determinants of anti-DFS70 autoantibodies in an international inception cohort of systemic lupus erythematosus patients. Lupus. 2017 Jan 1:961203317692437. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 28420054

Danda D, Goel R, Danda S, Mohan H, Joseph G, Kabeerdoss J, Nath SK. Interleukin-17F and Interleukin-6 gene polymorphisms in Asian Indian patients with Takayasu arteritis. Hum Immunol. 2017 Apr 21. pii: S0198-8859(17)30070-8. Epub ahead of print.  PMID: 28438554

Danda D, Sharma R, Truong D, Koelsch KA, Kurien BT, Bagavant H, Deshmukh U, Kaufman CE, Lewis DM, Stone DU, Radfar L, Rasmussen A, Sivils KL, Scofield RH. Anti-La positive, anti-Ro negative subset of primary Sjögren's syndrome: anti-La is a reality but is the disease? Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2017 Feb 20. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 28229827

Dumas EK, Garman L, Cuthbertson H, Charlton S, Hallis B, Engler RJM, Choudhari S, Picking WD, James JA, Farris AD. Lethal factor antibodies contribute to lethal toxin neutralization in recipients of anthrax vaccine precipitated. Vaccine. 2017 Jun 8;35(26):3416-22. Epub 2017 May 11.  PMID: 28504191

Furie R, Khamashta M, Merrill JT, Werth VP, Kalunian K, Brohawn P, Illei GG, Drappa J, Wang L, Yoo S; CD1013 Study Investigators.  Anifrolumab, an Anti-Interferon-α Receptor Monoclonal Antibody, in Moderate-to-Severe Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Feb;69(2):376-86.   PMCID: PMC5299497

Gough AT, Fieraru G, Gaffney P, Butler M, Kincaid RJ, Middleton RG. A novel use of QR code stickers after orthopaedic cast application. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2017 Jul;99(6):476-478. PMID: 28660817

He X, Cheng R, Park K, Benyajati S, Moiseyev G, Sun C, Olson LE, Yang Y, Eby BK, Lau K, Ma JX. Pigment epithelium-derived factor, a noninhibitory serine protease inhibitor, is renoprotective by inhibiting the Wnt pathway. Kidney Int. 2017 Mar;91(3):642-57.   PMCID: PMC5313326

Isenberg D, Sturgess J, Allen E, Aranow C, Askanase A, Sang-Cheol B, Bernatsky S, Bruce I, Buyon J, Cervera R, Clarke A, Dooley MA, Fortin P, Ginzler E, Gladman D, Hanly J, Inanc M, Jacobsen S, Kamen D, Khamashta M, Lim S, Manzi S, Nived O, Peschken C, Petri M, Kalunian K, Rahman A, Ramsey-Goldman R, Ruiz-Irastorza G, Sanchez-Guerrero J, Steinsson K, Sturfelt G, Urowitz M, van Vollenhoven R, Wallace DJ, Zoma A, Merrill J, Gordon C. A study of flare assessment in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) based on paper patients. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2017 Apr 7. Epub ahead of print.  PMID: 28388813

Kaplowitz ET, Ferguson S, Guerra M, Laskin CA, Buyon JP, Petri M, Lockshin MD, Sammaritano LR, Branch DW, Merrill JT, Katz P, Salmon JE.  Socioeconomic Status Contributes to Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes among Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2017 May 8. Epub ahead of print.  PMID: 28480528

Kim M, Merrill J, Kalunian K, Hahn B, Roach A, Izmirly P; Lupus Foundation of America Collective Data Analysis Initiative Group.. Brief Report: Longitudinal Patterns of Response to Standard of Care Therapy for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Implications for Clinical Trial Design. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Apr;69(4):785-90.  PMID: 27992696

Kishi T, Rider LG, Pak K, Barillas-Arias L, Henrickson M, McCarthy PL, Shaham B, Weiss PF, Horkayne-Szakaly I, Targoff IN, Miller FW, Mammen AL; Childhood Myositis Heterogeneity Study Group.. Anti-3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl-Coenzyme A Reductase Autoantibodies are Associated with DRB1*07:01 and Severe Myositis in Pediatric Myositis Patients. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2017 Jan 27.  Epub ahead of print. PMID: 28129483

Kurien BT, Matsumoto H, Scofield RH. Nutraceutical Value of Pure Curcumin. Pharmacogn Mag. 2017 Jan;13(Suppl 1):S161-63.   PMCID: PMC5407110

Kurien BT, Scofield RH. Validating Antibody Specificities for Immunohistochemistry by Protein Blotting Methods. Methods Mol Biol. 2017;1554:61-73. PMID: 28185183

Landrian I, McFarland KN, Liu J, Mulligan CJ, Rasmussen A, Ashizawa T. Inheritance patterns of ATCCT repeat interruptions in spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 (SCA10) expansions. PLoS One. 2017 Apr 19;12(4):e0175958.  eCollection 2017.  PMCID: PMC5397023

Langefeld CD, Ainsworth HC, Cunninghame Graham DS, ...Guthridge JM, Huggins  JL, James JA, ... Merrill JT, Miranda P, Moctezuma JF, Nath SK, ... Sivils KL, ... Alarcón-Riquelme ME, ..., Gaffney PM, Vyse TJ. Transancestral mapping and genetic load in systemic lupus erythematosus. Nat Commun. 2017 Jul 17;8:16021.  PMCID: PMC5520018

Li H, Reksten TR, Ice JA, Kelly JA, Adrianto I, Rasmussen A, Wang S, He B, Grundahl KM, Glenn SB, Miceli-Richard C, Bowman S, Lester S, Eriksson P, Eloranta ML, Brun JG, Gøransson LG, Harboe E, Guthridge JM, Kaufman KM, Kvarnström M, Cunninghame Graham DS, Patel K, Adler AJ, Farris AD, Brennan MT, Chodosh J, Gopalakrishnan R, Weisman MH, Venuturupalli S, Wallace DJ, Hefner KS, Houston GD, Huang AJW, Hughes PJ, Lewis DM, Radfar L, Vista ES, Edgar CE, Rohrer MD, Stone DU, Vyse TJ, Harley JB, Gaffney PM, James JA, Turner S, Alevizos I, Anaya JM, Rhodus NL, Segal BM, Montgomery CG, Scofield RH, Kovats S, Mariette X, Rönnblom L, Witte T, Rischmueller M, Wahren-Herlenius M, Omdal R, Jonsson R, Ng WF; for UK Primary Sjögren's Syndrome Registry, Nordmark G, Lessard CJ, Sivils KL.  Identification of a Sjögren's syndrome susceptibility locus at OAS1 that influences isoform switching, protein expression, and responsiveness to type I interferons. PLoS Genet. 2017 Jun 22;13(6):e1006820. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 28640813

Molineros JE, Yang W, Zhou XJ, Sun C, Okada Y, Zhang H, Heng Chua K, Lau YL, Kochi Y, Suzuki A, Yamamoto K, Ma J, Bang SY, Lee HS, Kim K, Bae SC, Zhang H, Shen N, Looger LL, Nath SK. Confirmation of five novel susceptibility loci for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and integrated network analysis of 82 SLE susceptibility loci. Hum Mol Genet. 2017 Mar 15;26(6):1205-16. PMID: 28108556

Munroe ME, Vista ES, Merrill JT, Guthridge JM, Roberts VC, James JA. Pathways of impending disease flare in African-American systemic lupus erythematosus patients. J Autoimmun. 2017 Mar;78:70-78. PMCID: PMC5340190

Patel VI, Booth JL, Duggan ES, Cate S, White VL, Hutchings D, Kovats S, Burian DM, Dozmorov M, Metcalf JP. Transcriptional Classification and Functional Characterization of Human Airway Macrophage and Dendritic Cell Subsets. J Immunol. 2017 Feb 1;198(3):1183-1201.  PMCID:PMC5262539

Schell J, Betts NM, Foster M, Scofield RH, Basu A. Cranberries improve postprandial glucose excursions in type 2 diabetes. Food Funct. 2017 Jul 27.  [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 28748974

Sharma R, Harris VM, Cavett J, Kurien BT, Liu K, Koelsch KA, Fayaaz A, Chaudhari KS, Radfar L, Lewis D, Stone DU, Kaufman CE, Li S, Segal B, Wallace DJ, Weisman MH, Venuturupalli S, Kelly JA, Pons-Estel B, Jonsson R, Lu X, Gottenberg JE, Anaya JM, Cunninghame-Graham DS, Huang AJW, Brennan MT, Hughes P, Alevizos I, Miceli-Richard C, Keystone EC, Bykerk VP, Hirschfield G, Xie G, Nordmark G, Bucher SM, Eriksson P, Omdal R, Rhodus NL, Rischmueller M, Rohrer M, Wahren-Herlenius M, Witte T, Alarcon-Riquelme M, Mariette X, Lessard CJ, Harley JB, Ng WF, Rasmussen A, Sivils KL, Scofield RH.  Rare X chromosome abnormalities in systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's syndrome.  Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Jul 10. PMID: 28692793

Shirley E, Chakravarty EF. The Herpes Zoster Vaccine in Rheumatic Diseases: Duration of Response. J Rheumatol. 2017 Jul;44(7):968-969.  PMID: 28668813

*Siefert JC, Georgescu C, Wren JD, Koren A, Sansam CL. DNA replication timing during development anticipates transcriptional programs and parallels enhancer activation. Genome Res. 2017 May 16. pii: gr.218602.116.  Epub ahead of print.  PMID: 28512193

Stone DU, Fife D, Brown M, Earley KE, Radfar L, Kaufman CE, Lewis DM, Rhodus NL, Segal BM, Wallace DJ, Weisman MH, Venuturupalli S, Brennan MT, Lessard CJ, Montgomery CG, Scofield RH, Sivils KL, Rasmussen A. Effect of Tobacco Smoking on The Clinical, Histopathological, and Serological Manifestations of Sjögren's Syndrome. PLoS One. 2017 Feb 6;12(2):e0170249. PMCID: PMC5293551

Troyanov Y, Landon-Cardinal O, Fritzler MJ, Ferreira J, Targoff IN, Rich E, Goulet M, Goulet JR, Bourré-Tessier J, Robitaille Y, Drouin J, Albert A, Senécal JL. Atorvastatin-induced necrotizing autoimmune myositis: An emerging dominant entity in patients with autoimmune myositis presenting with a pure polymyositis phenotype. Medicine (Baltimore). 2017 Jan;96(3):e5694. PMCID: PMC5279076

Tung KS, Harakal J, Qiao H, Rival C, Li JC, Paul AG, Wheeler K, Pramoonjago P, Grafer CM, Sun W, Sampson RD, Wong EW, Reddi PP, Deshmukh US, Hardy DM, Tang H, Cheng CY, Goldberg E. Egress of sperm autoantigen from seminiferous tubules maintains systemic tolerance. J Clin Invest. 2017 Mar 1;127(3):1046-60. PMCID: PMC5330742

Unnikrishnan A, Jackson J, Matyi SA, Hadad N, Wronowski B, Georgescu C, Garrett KP, Wren JD, Freeman WM, Richardson A. Role of DNA methylation in the dietary restriction mediated cellular memory. Geroscience. 2017 May 5. Epub ahead of print.  PMID: 28477138

Wang HC, Qian L, Zhao Y, Mengarelli J, Adrianto I, Montgomery CG, Urban JF Jr, Fung KM, Sun XH. Downregulation of E Protein Activity Augments an ILC2 Differentiation Program in the Thymus. J Immunol. 2017 Apr 15;198(8):3149-56.  Epub 2017 Mar 3.  PMCID: PMC5404348

Zhang YM, Zhou XJ, Nath SK, Sun C, Zhao MH, Zhang H. Evaluation of 10 SLE susceptibility loci in Asian populations, which were initially identified in European populations. Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 27;7:41399.  PMCID: PMC5269754

Zhao J, Ma J, Deng Y, Kelly JA, Kim K, Bang SY, Lee HS, Li QZ, Wakeland EK, Qiu R, Liu M, Guo J, Li Z, Tan W, Rasmussen A, Lessard CJ, Sivils KL, Hahn BH, Grossman JM, Kamen DL, Gilkeson GS, Bae SC, Gaffney PM, Shen N, Tsao BP. A missense variant in NCF1 is associated with susceptibility to multiple autoimmune diseases. Nat Genet. 2017 Mar;49(3):433-37.  Epub 2017 Jan 30. PMID: PMC5400098

* Indicates publications by more than one department or program.

Arthritis & Clinical Immunology Research Program
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
825 NE 13th Street, MS 53
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Phone: (405) 271-4987
Fax: (405) 271- 7063
Email:  judith-james@omrf.org