“My patients are very pleased to be a part of the research,” he says. “The important thing is they don’t feel the research is for them, but rather for the disease and for others.”
Dr. Miossec came to the U.S. in 1983, as a research fellow of the late Morris Ziff, MD, PhD, at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Miossec was the first to identify IL-1 at the site of arthritis and its effect on lymphocyte migration, and his work on the regulation of IL-1 function by IL-1RA and by anti-IL-1 autoantibodies laid the foundation of IL-1 inhibition.
He earned his PhD in immunology from the University of Marseille in 1987, and later showed the anti-inflammatory properties of IL-4 and the consequences of its relative absence in RA joints. He was the first to identify the pro-inflammatory and destructive properties of IL-17, and the concept of its production by a new T cell subset, now referred to as Th17 cells. He then showed that combining IL-17 and TNF inhibition was more potent—the basis for numerous therapies targeting IL-17 and leading to approval of the first anti-IL-17 antibody in January 2015.
‘We are losing the human aspects of medicine. We spend too much time in front of a computer instead of with our patients.’ —Dr. Miossec
Q: What did you learn from Dr. Ziff?
A: ‘Do your best.’ He has been an inspiration for my whole career. For instance, working on manuscripts, I spent hours next to him, word by word. We made sure every word was correct, reviewing and improving the manuscript. His advice was ‘always fight with the editor,’ something I have tried with success a few times, but often not.
Q: What advice do you have for the next generation of rheumatology researchers?
A: I see a danger in losing the bridge between basic and clinical research. Today, you need to get ideas from a large number of fields in order to really move forward as a team.
Q: What does an award from your peers mean to you?
A: It is a great honor to get such international recognition for my arthritis work and my immunology work. I made my first oral presentation at the ARA (now ACR) in 1984, the year I became a member. This is a nice achievement after years of work and friendship.
Q: What single change would benefit the field?
