Rheumatology Awards & Appointments

Dr. Hoover describes his research dissecting the role of myeloid cells in lupus nephritis as fascinating. Within the family of myeloid cells, five recently discovered members in lupus kidney disease are the subject of his investigation. “These five are probably associated with the kidney damage,” he says. The research looks at how the myeloid cells coordinate the immune response, thus damaging kidney tissue.

He says there are “conversations” between the myeloid immune cells. As he and his team develop tools to collect data, a “social network system” starts to emerge. No one has seen that before.

According to the award notice, his work “has the potential to reveal which immune cells and pathways” contribute to kidney damage. New models may emerge to explain human lupus that could lead to Dr. Hoover’s developing “his own laboratory to study the mechanisms of human lupus kidney disease.”

Dr. Hoover earned his MD and PhD from Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., and did his residency in internal medicine, as well as his fellowship in rheumatology, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.

Award for Pediatric Lupus Research

This year’s Gary S. Gilkeson Career Development Award from the Lupus Foundation of America for pediatric lupus research was awarded to Joyce Chang, MD. She is an attending physician in the Division of Rheumatology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an instructor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Her clinical interest is in helping youth with complex diseases, such as lupus, learn to take charge of their disease and navigate the healthcare system into adulthood. Dr. Chang’s research on attenuated nocturnal blood pressure dipping and subclinical atherosclerosis in child-onset lupus involves identifying non-invasive measures of vascular health in children. Tracking vascular health in children with lupus is vital, because these patients face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and damage than their adult counterparts.

Among the ways to measure vascular health, perhaps the easiest uses a finger pulse. “After placing the finger into a gel pack,” she says, “you staunch the blood flow into the finger for a short time and then measure the time needed to resume normal blood flow.” Another method is to monitor a sleeping test subject with a blood pressure cuff that automatically records blood pressure every 30 minutes.

Dr. Chang received her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a 21st Century Endowed Scholar. While at Perelman, she also was awarded the Russell J. Stumacher MD Memorial Prize, as well as the Emily and Francis Botelho Prize for Excellence in Basic Science. She completed both her residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric rheumatology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.