Through careful selection of submitted proposals and focused engagement of experts in disparate areas of science and medicine, the Scleroderma Research Foundation assembles a diverse portfolio of projects. These projects span multiple disciplines and facets of scleroderma research.
2025 Portfolio
Funded Grants
Somatic Mutations in Scleroderma
Shervin Assassi, MD, MS of UTHealth Houston McGovern School of Medicine
David Beck, MD, PhD of New York University
Alteration of Epigenetic Programs of HSPC Underlies the Chronic Activation of Innate Cells in Systemic Sclerosis
Franck Barrat, PhD
Hospital for Special Surgery — Senior Scientist
Identifying Novel Antibody Reactivities to Explain, Define, and Predict Subphenotypes of Scleroderma
Joe DeRisi, PhD
University of California, San Francisco — Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics
Aaron Bodansky, MD
University of California, San Francisco — Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dynamics of XIST RNP Profiles in Scleroderma
Diana Dou, PhD
Duke University — Assistant Professor of Integrative Immunobiology
Cell Surface GlycoRNAs in Autoimmunity
Ryan Flynn, MD, PhD
Boston Children’s Hospital —Assistant Professor
Harvard University — Assistant Professor, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
Building a Cellular and Genetic Atlas of Systemic Sclerosis for a Roadmap Toward a Cure
Johann Gudjonsson, MD, PhD
University of Michigan — Arthur C. Curtis Professor of Molecular Skin Immunology and the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Emerging Scholar of the Taubman Medical Research Institute
Dinesh Khanna, MD, MSc
University of Michigan — Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of Rheumatology and Professor of Internal Medicine
Epigenetics of Sex Differences in Scleroderma
Jinwoo Lee, MD, PhD
Stanford University School of Medicine — Instructor, Dermatology
Paul J. Utz, MD, PhD
Stanford University School of Medicine — Professor of Medicine (Immunology and Rheumatology)
Establishing a Spatially–integrated Transcriptomic, Epigenomic, and Histologic Signature of Fibrosis in Systemic Sclerosis
Michael Longaker, MD, MBA
Stanford University School of Medicine – Deane P. and Louise Mitchell Professor in the School of Medicine and Professor, by courtesy, of Materials Science and Engineering
Macrophage-stromal Cell Interactions in Tissue Homeostasis and Fibrosis
Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD
Yale School of Medicine — Sterling Professor of Immunobiology
Howard Hughes Medical Institute — Investigator
Identifying and Optimizing Care for Mechanistically-driven, Clinically-relevant Scleroderma Subgroups
Ami Shah, MD, MHS
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine – Associate Professor of Medicine
Scott Zeger, PhD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine — Professor of Biostatistics
Laura Hummers, MD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine – Associate Professor of Medicine
Ji Soo Kim, PhD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine – Assistant Professor of Medicine
DNAse1L3 and the Pathogenesis of Systemic Sclerosis
Kim Simpfendorfer, PhD
The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research — Assistant Professor
Spatial Transcriptomics of Skin to Augment Understanding of Cellular Interactions and Disease Propagation in Juvenile Scleroderma
Kathryn Torok, MD
Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital — Associate Professor of Medicine
Wei Chen, PhD
University of Pittsburgh — Professor of Pediatrics, Biostatistics, and Human Genetics
Identification of Novel Pathogenic Genes in Juvenile Systemic Sclerosis
Kathryn Torok, MD
Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital — Associate Professor of Medicine
A Gene Expression Map of Scleroderma
Michael L. Whitfield, PhD
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth — Chair and Professor of Biomedical Data Science; Professor of Molecular and Systems
Multi-omic Profiling of Interstitial Lung Disease in Systemic Sclerosis
Gerlinde Wernig, MD
Stanford University — Assistant Professor of Pathology
Cellular Profiling of Scleroderma and Connective Tissue Disease-Associated Interstitial Lung Diseases
Paul Wolters, MD
University of California, San Francisco — Professor of Medicine
Deciphering the female bias of B Cell Tolerance Breach in SSc
Bingfei Yu, PhD
University of Southern California — Assistant Professor of Medicine
Scleroderma Research Foundation and Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium (SCTC) Jointly Funded Projects
Optimising the Assessment and Novel Mechanistic Insights into Digital Ulcers in SSc: The International ‘100 DU’ Study
Michael Hughes, PhD, MRCP of the University of Manchester and John Pauling, PhD, FRCP of the University of Bristol
CRISTAL: Developing the Combined Response Index for Scleroderma Trials Assessing Limited Cutaneous SSc (Continuing)
Dinesh Khanna, MD, MSc of the University of Michigan and Alain Lescoat, MD of the University Hospital of Rennes
