Schwartz Lab
Principal Investigator: Daniella Muallem Schwartz
Institution: University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA)
Primary Subfield: Immunology
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
ABSTRACT: One of the most fundamental limitations in medicine is reliance on clinical phenotype as the primary way to diagnose and classify disease. For inflammatory diseases, clinical phenotype alone is not sufficient to describe underlying disease pathogenesis. For example, cytokines like interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and IL-17A can all drive arthritis, but clinical features such as arthritis or rash may not reflect the causal cytokine. As a result, there are no precision biomarkers to guide targeted cytokine therapy: phenotypic classification systems do not stratify patients by causative mechanisms that guide therapy. The lack of precision medicine strategies is one of the most significant unmet needs in the field, leading to poor outcomes for over 40 million patients with inflammatory diseases. This includes >1 million patients with a phenotype-driven diagnosis of “rheumatoid arthritis”: 40-50% of whom fail first biologic therapy, and 10% with disease refractory to multiple consecutive targeted therapies. We propose addressing this problem by combining expertise in immunogenetics and translational immunology (Dr. Schwartz); systems immunology and machine le…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R01AI189495-01A1: Developing a Molecular Taxonomy for Immune-Mediated Diseases (2026)
- 5R01NS134651-03: Efficacy and mechanisms of anti-IFN drugs in AGS treatment (2026)
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