Robert Roubey, MD, Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the UNC Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, recently attended the 18th International Congress on Antiphospholipid Antibodies, held in Kyoto, Japan, to give an invited talk on the history of antiphospholipid antibodies in the opening plenary session.
“I’ve been active in this field for almost my entire career and have served on the International Executive Committee for these congresses for about 30 years,” states Dr. Roubey. His talk, entitled The History of Antiphospholipid Antibodies, remarked upon the journey to understand antiphospholipids (aPL), starting in the early 20th century, and the unpredictable twists and turns encountered throughout. Milestones highlighted throughout the talk include the coining of the phrase “lupus anticoagulant” in 1972, the description of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) in patients in the 1980s, the development of anticardiolipin (aCL) immunoassays, and the broadening of the clinical spectrum of APS into the early 1990s, among other important discoveries.