Betty Diamond

Betty Diamond (b. May 11, 1948, Hartford, Ct, USA) is a scientist studying systemic lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease that affects many organs. She heads a research center at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. She found that foreign antigens react with and elicit pathogenic anti-DNA antibodies in patients with systemic lupus. [Nature Medicine 7, 1189 - 1193 (2001) doi:10.1038/nm1101-1189] She identified the firstFact|date=June 2008 and still most clinically significant and commonFact|date=June 2008 idiotype marker on anti-DNA antibodies in patients with lupus, and discovered that anti-DNA antibodies in patients and mice shared characteristics with antibodies to pneumococcal polysaccharide. This finding led her to propose that infections could cause exacerbations of the disease. Diamond showed that a single base change in a protective anti-pneumococcal antibody could convert it into a potentially pathogenic anti-DNA antibody. She also found that a peptide that binds to 50% of anti-DNA antibodies in lupus patients and mice shares an epitope on glutamate receptors of the brain and destroys neurons. Antibodies against the epitope are present in the cerebrospinal fluid and in brain tissue of patients with neuropsychiatric lupus. Her work provides a mechanism for aspects of neuropsychiatric lupus, and more generally for acquired changes in cognition and behavior. Diamond also studies the role that hormones may play in the development of lupus. [ [http://www.nature.com/nri/journal/v2/n7/full/nri865.html Access to articles : Nature Reviews Immunology ] ]

Honors

Diamond is a past chair of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) Board of Scientific Councilors. She is currently a member of the NIAMS Council. She is on the Council of the American Association of Immunologists, and President-elect for the 2009-2010 term. She is on the Board of Directors of the American College of Rheumatology, a fellow of the AAASFact|date=June 2008 and a member of the Institute of Medicine. She is a Professor of The Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine.

Key Publications

*Mackay, M., Stanevsky, A., Wang, T., Aranow, C., Li, M., Koenig, S., Ravetch, JV and Diamond B. Selective dysregulation of the FC (gamma) llB receptor on memory B cells in SLE. J. Exp. Med,2006; 203:2157-2164

*Kowal C, DeGiorgio LA, Lee JY, Edgard ME, Huerta PT, Volpe BT and Diamond B. Human lupus autoantibodies against NMDA receptors mediate cognitive impairment. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2006; 103:19854-19859

*Looney, RJ., Diamond, B. Holers, VM., Levesque, MC., Moreland, L., Nahm, MH and St. Clair W. Guidelines for assessing immunocompetency in clinical trials for autoimmune disease. Clinical Imunol. 2007; 123:235-243

*Grimaldi, C., Nashi, E., Venkatesh, J., and Diamond, B. B cell hyporesponsiveness and autoimmunity: a new paradigm. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 2007596:181-190

References