Betty Diamond

Betty Diamond (born 11 May 1948, in Hartford, Connecticut) is an American physician and researcher. She is head of the Center for Autoimmune and Musculoskeletal Diseases at Northwell Health's Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, NY.[1]

Betty Diamond
Born11 May 1948
Hartford, CT
NationalityAmerican
EducationRadcliffe College, Harvard Medical School
OccupationPhysician, Scientist
EmployerThe Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Known forMedical Research

Education

Betty Diamond received her B.A. in Art History (Magna Cum) from Radcliffe College in 1969 and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1973. In 1976 she began her residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY and in 1979 embarked on post-doctoral fellowship in Immunology with Dr. Matthew Scharff at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.

Academic career

Diamond has been on the faculty and chief of rheumatology at both Einstein and Columbia. She is currently head of the Center for Autoimmune and Musculoskeletal Disease at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Professor of Molecular Medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine.[2] She has been on the board of the American College of Rheumatology, is past president of the American Association of Immunology, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine.[3] She is also past chair of the scientific advisory board of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and has been on their Scientific Council.

Research

Diamond's primary interests are in the mechanisms of central and peripheral tolerance of autoreactive B cells,[4] and the defects in these mechanisms that are present in autoimmune disease, as well as the role of antibodies in brain disease.[5] Diamond identified the first idiotype marker on anti-DNA antibodies in patients with lupus,[6] and discovered that anti-DNA antibodies in patients and mice shared characteristics with antibodies to pneumococcal polysaccharide. Diamond showed that a single base change in a protective anti-pneumococcal antibody could convert it into a potentially pathogenic anti-DNA antibody. She also found that a peptide that binds to 50% of anti-DNA antibodies in lupus patients and mice represents an epitope on glutamate receptors of the brain and can destroy neurons. Antibodies against the epitope are present in the cerebrospinal fluid and in brain tissue of patients with neuropsychiatric lupus. Her work provides a mechanism for aspects of neuropsychiatric lupus, and more generally for acquired changes in cognition and behavior. Diamond also studies the role that hormones may play in the development of lupus.[7]

Awards and honors

(from 2000–present):

References
  1. "Centers of Excellence".
  2. "Betty Diamond, MD".
  3. "Member Directory". Institute of Medicine. Archived from the original on 2010-06-15.
  4. J. Immunol. 176:3311
  5. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 103:19854-19859
  6. Journal of Immunology, 133;1852
  7. Nature Reviews Immunology 9:449-456 (2009)
  8. "New Investigators Supported". S.L.E. Lupus Foundation. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  9. "ACR Past Awards of Distinction Recipients" (PDF). American College of Rheumatology. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  10. "Past Recipients Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Researchers". Arthritis Foundation. Archived from the original on 2011-09-07.
  11. "About Us: Scientific Advisors". Lupus Research Institute. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  12. "Alumni". Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  13. "Annual Report 2006" (PDF). AAAS. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  14. "Dr. Betty Diamond Selected to Receive Prestigious Evelyn V. Hess Award". Lupus Foundation of America. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
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