He Taught Us to Always Go Deeper

Dr. Tan, his wife Lisa, and their four grandchildren in December 2010.

When Drs. Tan, Smolen, Jochen Kalden, Ravinder Maini, and others met at the IUIS meeting in Budapest in the late 1980s, they began in earnest to collaborate through the Subcommittee for Standardization of Autoantibodies in Rheumatic and Related Diseases. They were able to gain the collaboration of major immunodiagnostic companies worldwide to work together in improving the standards and performance of kits for detection of autoantibodies, which culminated in several publications.6 This international professional networking was also the beginning of long-term friendships shared by many committee members. Dr. Tan, says Dr. Smolen, “is very dedicated to science and extremely smart in the way he tackles problems. Eng is also an extremely kind, supportive, gentle, and generous person.”

Continuing the Work

The scientific and clinical communities have recognized Dr. Tan’s enormous contributions with a wealth of awards and lectureships. He became an ACR Master in 1992, received the ACR Distinguished Investigator Award in 1991, and the ACR Gold Medal in 1998. He was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Lupus Research at the 8th International Congress on SLE held in Shanghai, China, 2007.

Besides his ongoing collaborations, Dr. Tan takes great pleasure in his family. All his children and grandchildren live in and around the San Diego area, so he and his wife see them often. But when queried about activities in his free time, now that he is emeritus, Dr. Tan just laughed. “Well, I guess there’s not much time that I have in which I am not working. I am lucky, because this kind of work is very stimulating. I am actually spending a lot of time working with former fellows, who continue to ask for my help and my opinions on their work.” Dr. Tan quoted the English playwright Noël Coward, who said, “Work is fun. There is no fun like work!”

“And I completely agree with him,” Dr. Tan said, enthusiastically. “Besides, in our kind of work, there is the chance that some of it may be of help and benefit to people.”

Gretchen Henkel is writing the “Profiles in Rheumatology” series.

References

1. Tan EM, Kunkel HG. Characteristics of a soluble nuclear antigen precipitating with sera of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. J Immunol. 1966;94:464-471.
2. Tsokos GC. In the beginning was Sm. J Immunol. 2006;176:1295-1296.
3. Tan EM, Rodnan GP, Garcia I, et al. Diversity of antinuclear antibodies in progressive systemic sclerosis. Arthritis Rheum. 1980; 23:617-625.
4. Tan EM, Cohen AS, Fries JF, et al. The 1982 revised criteria for the classification of systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Rheum. 1982;25: 1271-1277.
5. Tan EM. A time for change and a time to remain the same. Arthritis Rheum. 1985;28: 1201-1204.
6. Tan EM, Smolen J, McDougal JS, et al. A critical evaluation of enzyme immunoassays for detection of antinuclear antibodies of defined specificities. Arthritis Rheum. 1999; 42:455-464.