TR: On a more personal note, why did you decide to pursue rheumatology as a career? Anything you’d like to add to give members a sense of who you are and what you bring to this position?
Dr. Kuhn: I was first exposed to rheumatology as an undergraduate student working in a molecular biology lab investigating antibody cross-reactivity between an E. coli protein and dsDNA relative to lupus and was fascinated by the immunology related to lupus. I later spent a summer exposed to additional rheumatology research and patient care with Rafi Hirsch, MD, and Bob Colbert, MD, PhD, who were at Cincinnati at the time, which convinced me to pursue a combined medical and graduate education. I matriculated at the University of Colorado Medical Scientist Training Program where I met clinicians like Sterling West, MD, Bob Janson, MD, and Dennis Boyle, MD, who were the first to get me excited about clinical rheumatology as I began to appreciate the intricate links between the clinical practice of rheumatology and immunology research.
I decided to work with Mike Holers, MD, to continue investigating the immunology of rheumatologic disease for my PhD thesis. By the time I finished my PhD, I knew I wanted to remain in rheumatology and, as my husband jokes, I didn’t apply for internal medicine residency after that—I went straight for rheumatology fellowship. Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., provided me an outstanding opportunity to combine residency with fellowship in their Physician Scientist Training Pathway, where I trained with John Atkinson, MD. While I ultimately completed my postdoctoral research in a gastrointestinal pathology lab, it was Dr. Atkinson and then Dr. Holers who helped me craft my current research program linking the immunology of gut mucosa to joint pathology. All of these individuals together have been instrumental in both encouraging and challenging me along my career development.
I often refer to myself as a Kansas farm girl who is ready to get the work done.
Mary Beth Nierengarten is a freelance medical journalist based in Minneapolis.
