Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
I am interested in studying the etiology and development of inflammatory arthritis including viral associated inflammatory arthridities. We have developed a humanized mouse model that has been genetically modified to produce human cytokines as well as have a complete human immune system. We have utilized a HIV model to study HIV-associated inflammatory arthritis and better understand the development of the arthritis including histological and pathological changes and the immune cells and cytokines involved. Additionally I am interested in better understanding the role of natural killer cells in autoimmunity and especially in our model of HIV-associated inflammatory arthritis as it is a population of immune cells that is often not well characterized in autoimmune and inflammatory settings.