JOHNS HOPKINS JEROME L - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director, Jerome Greene Sjogren 's Syndrome Clinic / Professor of Medicine
- Professor of Medicine
Dr. Alan Baer is a Professor of Medicine. He founded the Sjögren's Syndrome Clinic in the Rheumatology Division at Johns Hopkins shortly after joining the faculty there in 2007. He graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1978 and completed his post-graduate medical training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt University Hospitals. He was a faculty member at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, from 1986 to 2007, and served there as Chief of the Section of Rheumatology and Fellowship Program Director. Dr. Baer has a long-standing interest in Sjögren's syndrome.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- Director, Family Planning Division / Associate Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics
Dr. Anne E. Burke is an Associate Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her clinical and research interests include contraception, family planning and perimenopause. Dr. Burke is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh. She earned her Master's in Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins
- Director, Cutaneous Nerve Lab / Professor of Neurology
Dr. Michael Polydefkis received his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He then became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow before returning to Johns Hopkins to complete an internship and residency in internal medicine, residency in neurology and a fellowship in neuromuscular diseases.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine
Dr. Thomas Grader-Beck is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. He graduated from the Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg, Germany in 1997, completed his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at the University of Massachusetts in 2003 and his subspecialty training in Rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins University in 2006. He joined the Jerome L. Greene Sjögren's Syndrome Center in 2010. His clinical and research interests are detection of early disease in Sjögren's syndrome and patients with overlap of Sjögren's syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus. Together with gynecologist Dr. Anne Burke he holds a special interest in Sjögren's syndrome patients with gynecological manifestations.
Job Titles:
- Bendann Family Professor of Ophthalmology / Professor of Ophthalmology
Esen K. Akpek, M.D., is recognized as a world-renowned leader in advanced corneal transplantation, stem cell transplantation, and ocular surface reconstruction procedures. She is the Bendann Professor of Ophthalmology and Rheumatology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Active in many professional organizations, Dr. Akpek's appointments include serving as the director of the Ocular Surface Disease and Dry Eye Clinic at Wilmer and the associate director of the Jerome L. Greene Sjögren's Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She is the medical director for CorneaGen, member of the Clinical Trials Consortium-Sjogren's Syndrome Foundation/SSF, member of the Medical & Scientific Advisory Board of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society (TFOS), and president of the Foster Ocular Immunology Society. Dr. Akpek is an associate editor with the journal Cornea and the American Journal of Ophthalmology Case Reports and serves on the editorial board of 6 other scientific journals. She also led KeraLink's International Medical Advisory Board between 2014 to 2019.
Job Titles:
- Research Program Coordinator for the Jerome L. Greene Sjögren 's Syndrome Center
Ms. Chaudhry is the Research Program Coordinator for the Jerome L. Greene Sjögren's Syndrome Center. She is a graduate of George Mason University, earning a B.S. in Community health, as well as a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, earning an M.S. in Biotechnology.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Dr. Kim is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, and Medicine - Allergy and Clinical Immunology. She is also an associate director of the Jerome L. Greene Sjögren's Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She earned her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and completed a internship, residency and post graduate training in otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her clinical interest is chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis and autoimmune manifestations of sinus disease. She is a clinician scientist actively performing both clinical and basic laboratory research. She directs a basic science laboratory active in the investigation of the molecular mechanisms of host defense in chronic rhinosinusitis, epithelial cell dysfunction of the upper airways, gene regulation of cytokine expression, interface between innate and adaptive immune responses in chronic rhinosinusitis, and hyperplastic growth responses in the pathogenesis of sinonasal polyposis. She has standardized and optimized the method by which biopsy of minor salivary glands are performed and is a collaborator in clinical trials at the Sjögren's Syndrome Center.
Job Titles:
- Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center
- Johns Hopkins Rheumatology Fellow
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology
Lee W. Guo, O.D., F.A.A.O. is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute locations in Baltimore, Maryland. His specialty and research revolve around dry eye disease and rehabilitation of the ocular surface. Dr. Guo has been part of Wilmer's clinical and research faculty since 2018. He is currently on staff with Wilmer's Ocular Surface Disease and Dry Eye Team. As of 2020, he joined Wilmer's Cornea Division as a dry eye specialist and rehabilitative contact lens provider. Prior to coming on board to Wilmer, Dr. Guo practiced full-scope optometry for several years at Vision Care Specialists, a large private OD/MD group practice in Colorado, where he served as medical director for their dry eye specialty clinic. Dr. Guo is board-certified by the American Board of Optometry and is an active fellow and clinical lecturer of the American Academy of Optometry. After finishing his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Guo achieved his Doctorate in Optometry at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He completed didactic residency training in ocular disease at the C.W. Bill Young Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bay Pines Florida, where he provided primary eye care, on-call ocular emergency consults, and low vision rehabilitation to local veterans. His overall clinical philosophy centers on holistic evidence-based preventative care for all patients, from pediatric to geriatric.
Job Titles:
- Medical Office Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Audiologist / Director - Audiology Bayview Medical Center
- Audiologist / Director - Audiology Bayview Medical Center / EDUCATION & TRAINING
Job Titles:
- Medical Office Coordinator
Ms. Robinson is the Sr. Research Coordinator II for the Jerome L. Greene Sjögren's Syndrome Center. She is a graduate of McGill University in Quebec, Canada majoring in Nutritional Sciences. She also completed her Master of Science in Kinesiology, specializing in Exercise Physiology at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She has extensive experience working in research as both an undergraduate and graduate research assistant.