“She continued her training in internal medicine at the New York Hospital and in rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), where she has been a faculty member since 1983. She is currently the Collette Kean Research Professor at HSS and a professor of medicine and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical College.
“During her training, Jane worked under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Kimberly, characterizing the function of FC receptors for immunoglobulins on lupus immune cells. Jane made the major discovery that a genetic variation of the FC-gamma receptor was an inheritable risk factor for lupus nephritis in African Americans. This was the first time a genetic variation of an immune cell receptor was associated with lupus.
“This finding was truly a game changer. As her colleague, Dr. Jill Buyon, noted, ‘Current and future insights into the reasons for disparities in nephritis may be provided in part by Jane’s discovery of these genetic variations. Jane was truly ahead of the curve in thinking about the structure and function of genes in lupus.’
“Jane then went on to redefine the standard of care for pregnant women with lupus with her paradigm-shifting translational research in pregnancy and antiphospholipid antibodies. Jane’s findings from her novel mouse model went against the long-held thought that thrombosis was the main culprit of complications and fetal loss in women with lupus and antiphospholipid antibodies. Instead, Jane’s seminal work demonstrated that complement activation, not thrombosis, was the major cause of placental dysfunction and fetal loss in these women.
“Jane took her initial groundbreaking results and initiated a novel, multicenter prospective clinical trial we all know as PROMISSE, or the predictors of pregnancy outcome: biomarkers in antiphospholipid antibody syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus study.
“Jane and her team have prospectively collected data from more than 700 women across 10 centers in the U.S., Canada and the UK, making it the largest ever study on pregnancy loss and lupus.
“Jane’s hard work has made a major impact on the field, providing insights for clinicians, for women with lupus who are or may become pregnant one day, and for their babies.
“We would be remiss tonight if we didn’t talk about Jane’s commitment to training the next generation of investigators. Jane shares Dr. Hess’ philosophy about the need to mentor and advance physician scientists in their research work and in academic medicine.
