The Center for Vasculitis Care and Research has enjoyed numerous visiting faculty, on sabbatical, from throughout the world who come to study and participate in clinical trials with Dr. Hoffman.
The Center has also thrived because of collaborative relationships with longstanding partners at the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Boston University. Secondary collaborations have been developed with over 30 other centers when it has been necessary to do so for large randomized controlled trials.
During the past 10 years, Dr. Hoffman has led the first randomized controlled trials in vasculitis and is currently conducting the first randomized controlled trials using biologic agents. Unprecedented studies are ongoing with agents that block TNF, IL1 and B cell propagation.
Linked to clinical trials are studies that evaluate the genetic predisposition and susceptibility to a variety of vasculitides. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Alabama, the first genetics repository, using immortalized cell lines, has been established and will be made available to geneticists throughout the United States to further evaluate disease susceptibility profiles.
All of these studies are NIH funded or investigator initiated and funded with industry partners. The addition of Dr. Carol Langford (NIH) to this unit as the new Director for the Vasculitis Care and Research, will add enormously to the already established high profile of vasculitis at Cleveland Clinic.
