Special Guest Speaker

The MD/PhD Program is pleased to announce it will sponsor a seminar on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012. The guest speaker is Betty Diamond, MD, Head of the Center for Autoimmune and Musculoskeletal Disorders at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.

Betty Diamond, MD, leads research on the very disabling disease systemic lupus erythematosus. A decade ago, Betty Diamond, MD, a lupus investigator at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, identified auto-antibodies in the brains of patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) and realized at the time that these auto-antibodies could be a potentially important target for drug development. Now, working with chemists at the Feinstein Institute, Dr. Diamond may realize her dream to block lupus auto-antibody activity. n a paper published June, 2011 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ona Bloom, PhD, and others at the Feinstein, led by Dr. Diamond and Yousef Al-Abed, PhD, head of the Feinstein’s Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, tested the molecule to see whether it blocks the disease-causing activity of anti-DNA antibodies. After they tested it in a laboratory model of lupus, they studied its activity in serum taken from lupus patients.

“This is very exciting,” said Dr. Diamond. “There are no therapies that are based on blocking this antibody from damaging target organs.”

Upstate Distinguished Speakers & Events

SUNY Upstate students have a standing invitation to the special lectures and presentations on campus.