“I learned SAS programming by sitting next to Quinn Whiting-O’Keefe, MD, when I was a fellow and then junior faculty at the University of California, San Francisco,” she says. “Things are easier now—back then, if you missed a semi-colon, the entire statistical program would not run. Thank you, Quinn, for taking the time to teach.”
Career Highlights
The result of all of these interactions was the establishment of a career that has been defined by excellence and wide-ranging research on issues that matter to patients with lupus. Dr. Petri is now professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and director of the Lupus Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.
The Hopkins Lupus Cohort, started by Dr. Petri in 1987, is a longitudinal study of the incidence and pathogenesis of thrombotic events and coronary artery disease in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Dr. Petri notes that starting and keeping the Hopkins Lupus Cohort running for 36 years has been her proudest research accomplishment. In fact, the serum and plasma bank from the cohort serves as an invaluable resource for many other researchers around the country and the world.
Through this and other endeavors, Dr. Petri’s research has focused on a range of subjects, including atherosclerosis, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS), lupus nephritis and pregnancy in patients with rheumatic disease. As part of the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics, Dr. Petri and colleagues at Johns Hopkins also participate in studies of atherosclerosis, malignancy and neuropsychiatric lupus.
Dr. Petri’s list of accomplishments is long. She has served as study chair or principal investigator for many landmark studies of the SLE patient population. Recent research has focused on the genetics of SLE and the role of gene signatures in monitoring disease activity.
Dr. Petri has mentored and trained numerous fellows in clinical research who have gone on to successful academic careers, as well as training residents and fellows in the diagnosis, treatment and care of lupus patients.
She has authored more than 500 papers and chapters on lupus, APS and SLE. She has served on the editorial board of Arthritis & Rheumatology and other journals. She served on the Medical Advisory Board of the Lupus Foundation of America and chaired the Lupus Now Education Program.
In 2018, the Lupus Foundation of America presented her with the Evelyn V. Hess Award, which recognizes the exceptional contributions of a clinical or basic researcher whose body of work has advanced the understanding of the science of lupus treatment. In 2019, she was named a Master of the ACR.
