NIAMS Update July 2011

The NIAMS Community Health Center Moves to New Location
The NIAMS Community Health Center (CHC) has moved to a new location in Silver Spring, Maryland, after 10 years of serving patients in Unity Health Care's Upper Cardozo Health Center in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of the District of Columbia. The lease ended in May 2011 due to planned renovations to the Unity building. The new CHC is located in the Cardinal McCarrick Center of the Spanish Catholic Center of Catholic Charities in Silver Spring, Maryland. It is accessible to public transportation and free parking is also available. There is no change in patient care at the new CHC—it will continue to operate three days a week and allow patients to access the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus for services not available at the CHC, as part of the NIAMS Natural History of Rheumatic Disease in Minority Communities study.

Jane Steinemann

Multicenter Psoriasis Study Offers Benefits to Skin Research, Future Doctor
“This experience has given me invaluable research, clinical and patient exposure that has uniquely prepared me to pursue a career as a physician.” Aspiring medical student Jane Steinemann is speaking of her role as research coordinator for a University of Pennsylvania-based project that examines the comparative effectiveness of treatments for psoriasis, a chronic skin disease characterized by scaling and inflammation. The study—and her central part in it—have been made possible by a grant funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), from the NIAMS.

(From left) Dr. Maozhou Yang, Dr. Liang Zhang and Dr. Gary Gibson

Hunt for MicroRNA Biomarkers of Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis Underway
Researchers at the Henry Ford Health System based in Detroit, Michigan, are searching for biomarkers for the kind of osteoarthritis that develops from a joint injury (post-traumatic osteoarthritis, or PTOA). Project leader Gary Gibson, Ph.D., and his colleagues are looking to find and validate microRNAs (miRNAs)—small noncoding nucleic acids—as biomarkers whose presence could yield information critical to clinical guidelines and treatment strategies for PTOA. The team—supported financially by the ARRA through the NIAMS—is investigating a family of newly discovered miRNAs in blood serum. Serum microRNAs have been shown to serve as biomarkers for other diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

The Honorable Daniel A. Mica (left) and Dr. Stephen I. Katz

NIAMS' Katz Recognized by the National Osteoporosis Foundation
NIAMS Director Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D., was honored with the Paul G. Rogers Leadership Award by the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) for his efforts in health research policy and scientific progress for public health. Dr. Katz was presented the award on May 10, 2011, by NOF Chairman, the Honorable Daniel A. Mica.

The NIH Expands Reach of National Clinical and Translational Research
The NIH announced that it will provide $200 million over five years to five health research centers to speed scientific discoveries into treatments for patients. The grants were awarded as part of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards program, which is led by the NIH's National Center for Research Resources.