Ignacio Sanz MD

A board-certified practicing rheumatologist with major emphasis on SLE, Dr. Sanz was Chief of the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Rochester since 1996 until his move to Emory in April of 2012 as the Mason Lowance Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology, Director of the Lowance Center for Human Immunology and Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Scholar in Human Immunology. Initially trained in Molecular Immunology in the laboratory of Dr. Capra at Southwestern Medical School, Dr. Sanz has extensive expertise in the study of human autoantibodies and B-cells. He has performed pioneering studies of B-cell depletion in human SLE. In the process, his lab has developed great expertise in the multi-chromatic FCM analysis of human B-cells, generation of monoclonal antibodies from single cells and more recently, next generation sequencing. For the last 11 years, Dr. Sanz has been the director of one of only 8 NIH-funded Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence in the nation as well as the Director of the University of Rochester Program for Biodefense of Immunocompromised Populations from 2006-2011. He is also the Principal Investigator of a large multi-institutional Program Project investigating B cells in Health and Disease and was the Director of the Rochester Center for Translational Immunology and Infectious Diseases from 2009-2012. He was a member of the NIAID Allergy and Immunology Study section and has also participated in multiple special review panels and ad-hoc reviews. He has been an invited participant in special workshops on Immunotherapy (NIAID); HIV (NIAID); and Type 1 Diabetes (NIDKK). He is also a member of the ACE and the Immune Tolerance Network Steering Committees and Chair of the ACE Mechanistic Studies Committee.