We are proud to announce that our AI Colton Scholar Jimin Tan, PhD was awarded a two-year grant from the Arthritis National Research Foundation (ANRF) titled, “Identification of gene dysregulation and therapeutic targets for psoriatic arthritis using novel machine learning approaches”. Drs. Jose U. Scher (NYU Colton Center Director) and Aris Tsirigos (Division of Precision Medicine co-Director) will serve as Mentors/Collaborators.

The goal of this Award is to further study potential new drug for Psoriatic arthritis (PsA), a chronic condition that affects about 30% of people with psoriasis, causing joint pain and skin plaques. While we have treatments that work well for skin symptoms, many patients still struggle with joint pain. Dr. Tan's research uses advanced machine learning algorithms that learn patterns in patient data to better understand why PsA develops. The investigative team will study tissue samples from both the skin and joints of patients to find out what makes cells behave differently in PsA compared to skin psoriasis and other forms of arthritis. By analyzing thousands of cells at once, this approach can locate important changes that might cause the disease. The model will be applied to look through existing FDA-approved drugs to find ones that might help treat PsA in new ways. This could lead to better treatments much faster than developing completely new drugs. The ultimate goal of this research program is to help doctors better treat both the skin and joint symptoms of PsA, improving the lives of patients living with this challenging condition.