Peter K. Gregersen, MD Lab Director

When Peter K. Gregersen, MD, identified two polymorphisms associated with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus in the past several years, his excitement and sheer joy was felt around the entire research institute. After all, he wants to use genetics to solve diseases and develop treatments and tests to help predict illnesses before symptoms occur. His goal is to understand the underlying causes of human autoimmune diseases. The genetic polymorphisms that Dr. Gregersen and his colleagues discovered several years ago on two genes – PTPN22 and STAT4 -- are now providing major clues as to what is going wrong in these illnesses. Many more genes risk genes for RA are emerging on almost a monthly basis. 

Within a few years, Dr. Gregersen and his colleagues hope to have a complete genetic catalogue of all the common genetic variants involved in the major autoimmune diseases. Dr. Gregersen has developed collaborations with geneticists all over the world in an effort to pool resources and speed the discoveries in the lab. In 2007, with three papers published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Gregersen was honored with the Klemperer Award by the New York Academy of Medicine and the American College of Rheumatology’s Distinguished Basic Investigator Award.

With early interests and a family environment that emphasized both music and science (his father was a research physiologist, his mother an opera and lieder singer), medicine was in some respects a compromise between these competing influences. It was during his residency that he met his first patients with lupus and other autoimmune diseases and learned the frustration and uncertainties of medicine firsthand: No one knew much of anything about how these diseases came to be. Research in genetics was just taking root, and in the 1980's he cloned the first group of genes that turned out to be related to rheumatoid arthritis. “It was an incredibly exciting experience,” said Dr. Gregersen. “It was obvious to me that this kind of work could be fulfilling for more than a lifetime.” Dr. Gregersen has expanded his genetics research interest to include other autoimmune diseases and he has recently extended his collaborations to include studies on neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’ disease.  Reflecting his musical roots, Dr. Gregersen has also had a longstanding interest in the genetics of a normal (although uncommon) human trait, absolute pitch.

Lab Members

Name:   Wentian Li , PhD
Position:   Associate Investigator
Research:   A genetic statistician, Dr. Li analyzes the genotyping and gene expression data.
E-mail:   wli@nshs.edu

Name:   Annette Lee, PhD
Position:   Assistant Investigator / Associate Dean, Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine
Research:   Runs the genotyping facility and performs whole genome association studies and targeted SNP replication studies.
E-mail:   alee@nshs.edu

Name:   Houman Khalili, MS
Position:   Senior Research Assistant
Research: 
E-mail:   hkhalili@nshs.edu

Name:   Jan Freudenberg, MD
Position:   Institute Scientist
Research:   Uses computational methods to study genetically complex disorders of the immune and the nervous system
E-mail:    jfreuden@nshs.edu

Name:   Leena Olsen, PhD
Position:   Post Doctoral Research Fellow
Research:   Studies genetics of autoimmune diseases.
E-mail:   lolsen@nshs.edu

Name:   Aarti Damle
Position:   Senior Research Assistant
Research: 
E-mail:   adamle@nshs.edu

Name:   Anothony Liew, MS
Position:   Senior Research Assistant
Research: 
E-mail:   aliew@nshs.edu

Name:  Sulia Sebro
Position:   Research Assistant
Research: 
E-mail:   ssebro@nshs.edu