Podcasts Other SCIENCE AND SOCIETY Dr. Richard Gomer, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Dr. Darrell Pilling, Faculty Fellow in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Rice University, 2-1-07

Dr. Richard Gomer, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Dr. Darrell Pilling, Faculty Fellow in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Rice University, 2-1-07

Published: Feb. 4, 2007, 6:30 p.m.

Cardiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, fibrotic disease, serum amyloid P. In 2001, Dr. Gomer and Dr. Pilling discovered that a naturally occurring protein in human blood called serum amyloid P prevented a subset of human blood monocytes from differentiating into cells called fibrocytes. Fibrocytes participate in both wound healing and fibrotic lesions, and they play a central role in fibrotic diseases, including scleroderma, pulmonary fibrosis, renal fibrosis, cirrhosis of the liver, airway wall thickening in asthma, and cardiac fibrosis.