Rheumatologist John P. Atkinson, MD, Continues Research into Rare Diseases

More Excitement Than Ever

After 45 years of conducting research, Dr. Atkinson’s appetite for discovering the unknown hasn’t shrunk a bit. Neither has his love of sports: He recently stopped playing basketball only because he couldn’t find an “over 70” league.

With no plans to retire anytime soon, he will continue doing targeted, deep sequencing to find the cause of more diseases.

“Thanks to modern genetics, we are now more easily able to figure out human diseases,” says Dr. Atkinson. “This is the major reason I’m still active. It’s more exciting than ever to be a basic and translational scientist than at any time in my career.”

Carol Patton is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas, Nev., and writes the Rheum after 5 column for The Rheumatologist.