Dr. Mo Osman's research is named among the top by Arthritis Society Canada
6 February 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Osman (Assistant Professor with the Division of Rheumatology) and Dr. Lisa Willis (Science), whose research is named in the Top 10 research advances of 2023 by Arthritis Society Canada.
Their research has discovered intriguing similarities between systemic sclerosis and cancer. Their teams uncovered a new biological marker for scleroderma, which affects ~17,000 in Canada and is fatal for ~40% of patients. Also involved in this research were Dr. Robert Gniadecki (Professor, Division of Dermatology) and Dr. Jan Willem Cohen Tervaert (Professor, Division of Rheumatology).
The research was featured in Folio on January 8, 2024.
Next Research STEP
Title: Evaluating a role for polysialic acid as a diagnostic prognostic and therapeutic target in systemic sclerosis.
The team has received a grant from the National Scleroderma Foundation to determine the importance of the sugar modification, polysialic acid, in scleroderma – a life-threatening inflammatory disease with no effective treatments. Their team aims to determine how this sugar modification promotes scarring in the skin and the lungs of patients with scleroderma. They also aim to develop a simple blood test that can better predict disease poor outcomes in patients with this lethal disease. Together, their study may lead to developing novel insights and treatment approaches for patients with scleroderma and possibly other inflammatory diseases.