TARC faculty, staff and fellows recently gathered in San Diego, California for the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Convergence 2023 conference. While there, attendees spent several days sharing their expertise and presenting the latest research findings with rheumatology researchers and clinicians.
Our Rheumatology Fellows were well represented this year with presentations from Drs. Astia Allenzara, Prarthana Jain and Katie Yates. Multiple presentations on engaging diverse populations in lupus research were provided by Dr. Saira Sheikh and her team including Dr. Tessa Englund. Award winners included doctoral student Chris Lane, who received the Emerging Investigator Excellence Award, and Dr. Yvonne Golightly who received the ARP President’s Award.
“Attending these types of meetings keeps you informed, and you feel ready for the next breakthrough without being completely shocked and wondering how the scientific advancement happened,” said Liubov Arbeeva, a biostatistician for TARC and the Core Center for Clinical Research (CCCR). Ms. Arbeeva was an invited speaker in a State of the Art session “Microbiome Niches in OA and provided a presentation in the Stats Bootcamp series.
In between communicating their work and taking in information from the myriad of talks, members of TARC had the opportunity to catch up with colleagues and make new acquaintances with meeting attendees. Dr. Saira Sheikh, Linda Coley Sewell Distinguished Prof. of Medicine, met with the incoming president of ACR, Dr. Deborah Desir (photo below), as well as the ACR Collaborative Initiatives staff and team, and CDC program officers.
Dr. Amanda E. Nelson, Assoc. Prof. of Medicine, contributed a thoughtful piece on AI and the Future of Rheumatology at ACR 2023 to Doximity’s Op-Med collection online (Read Here). In the article, Dr. Nelson depicts both the “promise and occasional trepidation” around predictive and generative artificial intelligence and gives an overview of notable presentations, including the keynote lecture at the opening ceremony, that shined a light on AI in rheumatology and precision medicine.
Another noteworthy article contributed to Doximity following ACR23 was penned by Dr. Richard F. Loeser, Jr., Director of the UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center and Joseph P. Archie, Jr. Eminent Prof. of Medicine. His article, Emerging Evidence of a Role for the Gut Microbiome in Osteoarthritis, discusses the microbiome emerging as a popular focus for investigators in the OA field and the need for additional studies in this area. Read more about the exciting microbiome findings presented at ACR23 in Dr. Loeser’s article here (Read Here).
Check out the photo gallery below of memorable moments from ACR23!
