Dr. Cohen is an adjunct professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and in private practice at Rheumatology Associates, Dallas, Texas. He is director of the Division of Rheumatology at Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas; and since 1984, has been co-medical director of Metroplex Clinical Research Center which conducts phase 1-IV clinical trials in rheumatic diseases. In that capacity he has served as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry on protocol development in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), glucocorticoid induced osteoporosis and disease modification in osteoarthritis, as well as serving on medical advisory boards and data safety monitoring committees. Based on the clinical research efforts, he has been an author on numerous publications and has served as a section editor for Up to Date and InPractice Rheumatology. He has been a principal investigator on multicenter trials of therapeutics for RA and autoimmune neurosensory hearing loss. Dr. Cohen has been actively involved in the teaching of rheumatology fellows and residents/medical students during their rotations in the clinical practice
Dr. Cohen was past chairman of the Board of The North Texas Chapter of The Arthritis Foundation (AF), and was honored with its Medical Professional Award in 1994. He received the Howard C. Coggeshall Lifetime Achievement Service Award from the North Texas AF in 2006. He has served as President of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) in 2009, and President of the Rheumatology Research Foundation in 1999. He served on the Board of Directors of the ACR from 2001-2004 and served on the Executive Committee of the ACR from 2005-2008. In 2021 he was honored with the ACR Presidential Gold Medal award. Dr. Cohen has served on the Medical Advisory Board of Directors of the Harold C. Simmons Arthritis Center at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and has been a member of the UTSWMC CME Executive Committee.
Dr. Cohen graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in biology from the University of Virginia and received his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), with honors, from the University of Alabama, School of Medicine in Birmingham, where he was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha. He then completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Texas and a fellowship in Rheumatology at St. Paul Medical Center/Southwestern Medical School, Dallas.
Dr. Weinblatt is a board-certified Rheumatologist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA and has almost 50 years of experience.
Dr. Weinblatt was the President of the American College of Rheumatology in 2001. Dr. Weinblatt is the author of The Arthritis Action Program: An Integrated Plan of Traditional and Complementary Therapies. He has also authored or co-authored more than 300 published papers, reviews, and book chapters on rheumatology. Additionally, he is the co-editor of Targeted Treatment of the Rheumatic Diseases and the textbook Rheumatology (3rd-8th editions).
His major research interest is in the therapeutics for rheumatoid arthritis, which includes studies of methotrexate and biologic response modifers. His work on the development of methotrexate therapy for rheumatoid arthritis garnered him the Carol Nachman Prize for Rheumatology and the Arthritis Foundation’s Virginia P. Engalitcheff Award for Impact on Quality of Life. In 2008, Dr. Weinblatt received the American College of Rheumatology Distinguished Clinical Investigator Award and the ACR Presidential Gold Medal in 2016.
Dr. Weinblatt earned a medical degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, where he also completed his internship and residency. He completed a clinical fellowship in rheumatology at the Robert B. Brigham Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He is the John R and Eileen K Riedman Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and R. Bruce and Joan M. Mickey Distinguished Chair in Rheumatology, Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation and Immunity at Brigham & Women’s.
Dr. Merkel is the Chief of Rheumatology and a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Merkel is an internationally recognized research and clinical expert in vasculitis, scleroderma, and other systemic autoimmune diseases, and is an author on over 400 scientific publications. He is the Principal Investigator of the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC) and the Vasculitis Patient-Powered Research Network (VPPRN), two leading international research infrastructures for clinical investigation in vasculitis. Dr. Merkel’s research focuses on development of novel therapies for systemic autoimmune diseases, clinical trial design and conduct, outcome measure development, clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and biomarker discovery.
Dr. Merkel received his MD from Yale University, his MPH from Harvard University, completed his residency training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He has been a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, Boston University School of Medicine, and now the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Merkel has received the majority of his research support from the National Institutes of Health, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, with additional funding from industry sources and private foundations.
Dr. Niti Goel is a board-certified rheumatologist with over 25 years of academic, preclinical to late-stage drug development, and medical affairs experience. She is President and Co-founder of Caduceus Biomedical Consulting, LLC, as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology.
Dr. Goel is highly knowledgeable in autoimmune, autoinflammatory, and musculoskeletal diseases, both common and rare. She has extensive expertise in bespoke and novel clinical trial design, recruitment, and delivery, and has had successful global regulatory interactions and approvals for biologics, cellular therapies, and small molecules. She has held senior leadership roles at TrialSpark (Senior Vice President), Abcuro (Chief Medical Officer), Kezar Life Sciences (Chief Medical Officer), and IQVIA (Vice President), as well as various roles at Array BioPharma, Inc., UCB Pharma, and P&G (Procter & Gamble) Pharmaceuticals. She was also her site principal investigator on LUMINA (Lupus in Minorities: Nature vs Nurture) while at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and conducted research in the genetics of systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome while an internal medicine resident and a rheumatology fellow at Duke. Her experience with minority and other underserved patients as a resident, fellow, and academician continue to fuel a lifelong interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical trials as well as ensuring the patient perspective in clinical research endeavors. She is an active member and contributor to OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology) and GRAPPA (Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis) as well.
Dr. Goel continues to precept residents and fellows in the rheumatology clinic at the Durham Veterans Administration Hospital. She graduated with honors from Pennsylvania State University and summa cum laude from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. She completed her internal medicine and rheumatology training at Duke University Medical Center.
Dr. Smith is a distinguished leader in biopharmaceutical development with over two decades of experience driving innovation in oncology, gene therapy, and immunotherapy. Currently, she serves as the President of Triangle Therapeutics Consulting, LLC and holds a position on the Board of Directors at Lifordi Immunotherapeutics. Dr. Smith has held key leadership roles at SpringWorks Therapeutics, where she led the development and FDA approval of Ogsiveo®, the first GSI approved for desmoid tumors, and led the development of mirdametinib for neurofibromatosis.
Her career includes pivotal contributions at United Therapeutics Corporation, where she was instrumental in the approval of Unituxin®, the first immunotherapy for high-risk neuroblastoma in both the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Smith’s work has consistently focused on advancing treatments for rare and complex diseases, demonstrating her commitment to improving patient outcomes through innovative medical solutions.
She earned her PhD in Microbiology from the University of New Hampshire and has published extensively in leading medical journals.
Dr. Lauren S. Baker founded Insight Medical Consulting in 2021 where she and her team are assisting companies with regulatory and clinical strategy work. Dr. Baker has a unique background that has leveraged her technical engineering background and strong medical experience. In 2000, she established Boston Biomedical Associates, a boutique consulting and clinical research organization that leveraged her experiences from BSC to support multiple companies in multiple therapeutic areas. She continued to grow the business organically and ultimately sold the business as part of a roll-up of several internationally-based small consulting and CRO entities to form what is today branded as Avania.
Prior to that, Dr. Baker worked at Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC). Her entrepreneurial spirit thrived at BSC during the time when the company expanded from a privately held “small” entity to a formidable public company. She worked with the engineering teams as well as clinical and regulatory to refine the necessary interaction of these critical pillars of successful product development. Her role was refined when she established the international clinical research presence for BSC and expanded to take on the role of Head of Corporate Clinical Research.
Dr. Baker received a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering and a Masters and PhD in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on cardiovascular fluid mechanics. Her engineering expertise was applied to the medical arena during her tenure at UMASS Medical School where she served as an assistant professor of cardiac surgery. She performed both clinical and preclinical research and taught both medical students/surgical residents as well as engineering students on the fundamentals of cardiac mechanics and the technical application of engineering principles to the cardiovascular system.