QingpingPYaoMD(He/Him)

Summary

• I joined Stony Brook University (SBU) as a Professor, Department of Medicine in 2015 and have since served as the Chief of the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Director of the Center of Autoinflammatory Disease, and Zhang Family Endowed Chair in Rheumatology. After completing my Rheumatology Fellowship training in the Department of Rheumatology at UCLA in 2008, I joined the Cleveland Clinic, where I served as a Senior Staff Rheumatologist in the Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Disease, and inaugural Director of the Clinic for Adult Autoinflammatory Disease until 2015. With my curiosity and diligence, I led reporting the new disease in 2011, Yao syndrome (American Journal of Medicine), formerly designated as NOD2-associated autoinflammatory disease (Journal of American Academy of Dermatology). The disease has been collected in OMIM (YAOS, #617321). I created and have managed the Center of Autoinflammatory Diseases at Stony Brook University serving as a referral hub for patients with autoinflammatory diseases from across the country. In 1997, I came to the Division of Rheumatology, Columbia University to conduct research on collagen induced arthritis. I performed research on gene therapy for rheumatoid arthritis at the University of Pittsburgh, which has laid a foundation for my further study of rheumatic disorders in relation to the genomic medicine. Recently I led proposing and defining a new concept in genomic medicine, Genetically Transitional Disease (Trends Genet, Nat Rev Rheumatol). This notion and related working nosology could have a far reaching impact in patient care and research. I was fortunate to train and have happily contributed to patient care, research, and education in the highly prestigious academic institutions in both the US and China during my career. Overall, as a physician/scientist I have strived to investigate rheumatic disease in an innovative way.