In addition to the great strides made in fundraising, I am delighted to share that we have funded 30 grants amounting to $12 million thus far, and we will continue to fund grants annually until the entire $30 million has been spent. The grant recipients are outstanding basic and clinical scientists—some new to the field of RA research. Publications resulting from this work—and NIH grant applications by Within Our Reach grant recipients—are already starting to appear, and the REF is diligently working to ensure that these bright researchers are funded.
In August, we held our first investigators meeting where we not only reviewed the ongoing work, but charged these talented investigators with helping us begin to develop a national plan to address the problems which have, up until now, limited our effectiveness as rheumatologists. This may include a comprehensive plan to assemble very large cohorts of RA patients that are clinically characterized (e.g., patients who are at high risk for developing RA according to genetic and environmental factors and have biospecimens rigorously collected and stored). Most important, these resources would be freely available to scientists.
Of course, these efforts will require investigators who are dedicated to working together, as well as creative partnerships to fund them. The AF remains an important partner, and we are working to develop effective strategies to partner with the NIH.
As we have already seen, we can accomplish ambitious goals, but only if we are bold and dedicated enough to start. I congratulate the previous leaders of the ACR and REF on their bold vision and hope that we can all work together toward our goals to make prevention, remission, and cure of RA truly within our reach.
Leslie Crofford, MD is the president of the ACR Research and Education Foundation and chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Contact her by e-mail at [email protected].