Profiles

Over the past 10 years, Dr. Mariko Ishimori has been involved with the UCLA CTSI, initially serving on the Curriculum Subcommittee of the Training Program in Translational Science (TPTS) in the first grant cycle and in more recent years, as the site co-Leader, working with Brennan Spiegel, site Leader, for Cedars-Sinai in the UCLA CTSI. Dr. Ishimori is also involved with the Program Areas of Workforce Development, Team Science, and PCI.

Dr. Ishimori's scientific endeavors have been mainly focused in the study of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and hand osteoarthritis (HOA). I have experience in designing, recruiting and conducting clinical translational studies in SLE and HOA. In SLE, Dr. Ishimori has successfully collaborated with investigators at multiple academic medical centers nationally, studying patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and their first-degree relatives to study risk factors associated with antibody development, progression to disease and disease manifestations.

In HOA, Dr. Ishimori is a member of 2 collaborative efforts. The first is the OMERACT working group to define a core set of outcome measures in HOA, which involves HOA experts from around the world. In addition, she is also a member of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) working group to develop HOA classification criteria, which involves a collaboration between US and European researchers that will redefine the disease for future studies. Most recently, she was involved in the ACR/Arthritis Foundation development of treatment guidelines for osteoarthritis.

Outside of research, Dr. Ishimori practices as a rheumatologist with a local, national and international referral base. Dr. Ishimori has continued to work closely with primary care providers at the Saban Community Clinic (previously the Los Angeles Free Clinic) in partnership with their primary care providers with an interest in rheumatology as part of a “Rheumatology Champion” program, to expand access to rheumatologic care in that setting. This includes her monthly volunteer clinical activity at both the Saban Clinic and Venice Family Clinic, which serve safety net populations. Dr. Ishimori is also an active and critical component of the rheumatology fellowship training program and regularly works with rotating medical students, residents and fellows on the rheumatology teaching service and has worked with high school students and now helps administrate the Long Beach Polytechnic High School Research Enrichment program through the Cedars CTRC (PCI) for several years.