BACPAC is designed to take a comprehensive approach to understanding and treating back pain. This issue of Pain Medicine contains important information on these efforts.

NIH scientists developed and recently released a free, online data query tool called NeutGX. Researchers around the world can use NeutGX to explore the genetic basis of neutrophil-mediated inflammation in autoimmune diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and other conditions.

This past summer the NIAMS Career Development and Outreach Branch (CDOB) welcomed 15 students from across the country and Puerto Rico to participate in the inaugural NIAMS Intramural Virtual Training Research Opportunities (InVTRO) program.

NIAMS is saddened to share the news that Paul Plotz, M.D., who dedicated nearly four decades of service to science at the NIH, passed away on January 13, 2024, at the age of 86 after a long illness. Dr. Plotz was a world-renowned rheumatologist, immunologist, and researcher known internationally as an expert in myositis, an inflammatory muscle disease and rare autoimmune condition. He retired from NIH in 2011 after serving in a variety of leadership roles, including as chief of the NIAMS Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch, as well as acting scientific director and acting deputy director. He also was senior

Overview An international team of researchers, led by the NIAMS Intramural Research Program (IRP)’s Muscle Disease Section, has discovered a new mechanism through which myositis autoantibodies —antibodies produced by the immune system that mistakenly target the body's own components— contribute to the disease. Myositis encompasses a group of rare autoimmune diseases where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy muscle tissue. The researchers discovered that autoantibodies can get inside muscle cells and disrupt the normal function of the proteins they bind to. This new discovery could have implications for how we understand not only myositis, but also other autoimmune diseases. The

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered that the presence of a benign nail abnormality may lead to the diagnosis of a rare inherited disorder that increases the risk of developing cancerous tumors of the skin, eyes, kidneys and the tissue that lines the chest and abdomen (e.g., the mesothelium).