The CARRA Blog

WASHINGTON, DC, (April 16, 2025) – The Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 CARRA Community Awards. The awards, which were presented at CARRA’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Denver this month, honor people who have made outstanding achievements in advancing pediatric rheumatology research and have worked

Dr. Shoghik Akoghlanian, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University, College of Medicine, and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. As a part-time pediatric rheumatologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, she balances clinical care, research, and education. Her primary focus is providing specialized care to children with rheumatic diseases, particularly in

Dr. Danny Soulsby is a Pediatric Rheumatologist at UCSF Children’s Hospital Oakland, where he balances clinical care with research focused on social determinants of health in pediatric rheumatic diseases, particularly Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). His interest in rheumatology began in medical school when he cared for a complex patient who

Dr. Mariana Correia Marques, located in Bethesda, MD, is a physician-researcher at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). With a focus on autoinflammation and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA), Dr. Marques is dedicated to identifying pathways involved in autoinflammatory diseases and optimizing treatments for patients, particularly those with refractory cases

This episode of The CARRA Podcast was recorded live in Washington, D.C. at CARRA’s event at ACR, the American College of Rheumatology’s annual conference. Claudette Johnson, the host of The CARRA Podcast, spoke to the crowd of more than 200 physicians, research professionals, industry representatives and patient advocates at the CARRA event at ACR. She

Dr. Sivia Lapidus is a full-time Pediatric Rheumatologist at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital, Hackensack Meridian Health, with a passion for translational science research, particularly focused on autoinflammatory diseases. She has been the leader of the CARRA PFAPA/Autoinflammatory Disease Work Group since its inception in 2013 and is also actively involved in the CRMO, Kawasaki

When a child is diagnosed with a rare and complex disease like scleroderma, families experience a lot of stress and often feel like they are completely alone. You are never alone. That is why we will dedicate several episodes of The CARRA Podcast to exploring different diseases that make up our CARRA community. We will