Peter K. Gregersen

Peter K. Gregersen ( born 1950 ) is an American physician and geneticist, known for the genetics of autoimmune diseases and especially rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus and myasthenia gravis.

Life and work

Gregersen received in 1972 his bachelor's degree in natural sciences at the Johns Hopkins University and then studied medicine at Columbia University (College of Physicians and Surgeons ) with the MD degree in 1976. Initially he worked as a rheumatologist and then went in research on the genetics of rheumatic diseases. He directs the Robert S. Boas Center for Genomics and Human Genetics at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York (North Shore University Hospital).

In the late 1980s, he identified with Robert J. Winchester genes that increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis and encode specific HLA proteins present to the immune system at the cell surface, for example, antigens of viruses in virus decay, after which the cell is attacked by the immune system. In the case of congenital risk of arthritis, HLA proteins specially shaped complexes formed on the cell surface.

He and his team identified a number of genes that influence susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis and a number of genes that are generally beieinflussen susceptibility to autoimmune diseases by controlling the activity level of the immune system ( CSK, TNIP 1, BLK, PTPN22 ).

In 2007 he received the Medal Klemperer the New York Academy of Medicine and the Distinguished Basic Investigator Award from the American College of Rheumatology ( ACR). In 2013 he was awarded the Crafoord Prize with Lars Klareskog and Robert J. Winchester for arthritis research.

Writings

  • With JH Cho Genomics and the multifactorial nature of human autoimmune disease, New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 365, October 2011, pp. 1612-1623
  • With LM Olsson: Recent advances in the genetics of autoimmune disease, Annual Review Immunology, Volume 27, 2009, pp. 363-391.
  • With Winchester, J. Silver The shared epitope hypothesis. An approach to understanding the molecular genetics of susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis, Arthritis & Rheumatology, 30, 1987, 1205-1213
  • The molecular basis of Winchester with susceptability to rheumatic arthritis: the conformational equivalence hypothesis, Springer Seminar Immunopathology, 10, 1988, 119-139
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