More about
Dr. Alarcón-Riquelme:

Dr. Alarcón-Riquelme 101
(for non-scientists)

Dr. Alarcón-Riquelme's CV in brief

Publications

Arthritis and Immunology Research Program

Marta E. Alarcón-Riquelme, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Member, Arthritis and Immunology Research Program

Research Interests
The identification of genes for lupus will lead to a better understanding of disease pathogenesis. My group has been working for several years in the identification of new genes for lupus. Within the various genes for lupus known to date, we identified PDCD1 and BANK1. These studies include the understanding of the functional basis of the variants or mutations underlying lupus susceptibility. Thus, we study in detail the new susceptibility genes to determine if functional variation in each gene affects gene expression or splicing or might have other consequences on gene function.

However most genetic risk identified to date have very small individual effects on the lupus phenotype. Whether gene-gene interactions might underlie major effects on the risk to develop lupus is one of the goals of our research. Further, we take a step forward and ask ourselves if the genetic interactions reflect true biological processes, and we investigate if the interacting genes code for proteins that may bind to each other or interact functionally in the same biological process.

A second goal in our studies is to identify susceptibility genes of Amerindian origin (Native American or Native Latin American) in individuals of Hispanic ancestry. Hispanics develop at times a severe lupus with many clinical complications and understanding how ancestry and admixture contributes to development of the disease is part of our studies.

For our studies, we count with numerous national and international collaborations that have provided us with an extensive resource of samples.

Joined OMRF Scientific Staff in 2009.

Mailing Address
Arthritis and Immunology Research Program, MS 24
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
825 N.E. 13th Street
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73104

Contact Information
Phone: (405) 271-4031
Fax: (405) 271-4110
E-mail: Marta-Alarcon@omrf.org