T CELL REACTIVITY IN INCLUSION BODY MYOSITIS (IBM)

Trained in neuromuscular medicine, my clinical career has focused on the care of patients with genetically mediated neuromuscular disorders, rare peripheral neuropathies, and immune-mediated nerve and muscle disorders and performing high quality electrodiagnostic testing (nerve conduction studies/electromyography). As a researcher, the core aim of my work is applying high resolution ultrasound in the care of patients with neuromuscular diseases.  My early work focused on peripheral nerve and is now moving toward muscle imaging.  My current research includes muscle ultrasound in late onset Pompe disease and peripheral nerve imaging in acute inflammatory demyelinating radiculoneuropathy.  Since 2016, I have collaborated with Dr. Kathryn Nightingale’s biomedical engineering laboratory on applying shear wave imaging to diseases of the nerve and muscle.   I am interested in clinical trials for neuromuscular disorders and novel technologies for diagnosing and monitoring neuromuscular disease.

Clinical Research in Neuromuscular diseases including myasthenia gravis, Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, botulinum toxins, electromyography, dystonic disorders including cervical dystonia (spasmodic torticollis), limb focal dystonia, and blepharospasm.

Research Interests:
1. Therapy of neuromuscular disease - immunologic and neuromuscular facilitating agents for myasthenia gravis (MG) and Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS).
2. Clinical trials in nerve, muscle and neuromuscular diseases

I am an immunologist, with a focus to characterize the immune system in response to infectious and non-infectious diseases including cancer, HIV, autoimmune disease, and transplantation. My goals are to identify novel biomarkers/immune signatures that clinicians can utilize to diagnosis, predict disease outcomes, and determine patients' response to treatment.