Departments/Faculties

KNU School Of Medicine

Department

Basic Science
Department Division of Rheumatology
Introduction The Division of Rheumatology in Kyungpook National University School of Medicine was established  in 1998 and has provided a high standard of education for students and resident and researches, and world-class healthcare services for the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic diseases. We deal mainly with autoimmune inflammatory arthropathies (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis) and systemic  connective tissue diseases (e.g., systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren¡¯s syndrome, and vasculitides), of which some are so serious to be difficult to diagnose and treat. We also treat degenerative (e.g., osteoarthritis) and metabolic (e.g., gout) diseases, and functional pain syndrome (e.g., fibromyalgia).
Based on extensive medical experience and a high level of understanding of the  pathogenetic mechanisms, we have carried out various clinical and basic researches. In the clinical research field, the Korean Atherosclerosis Risk for Rheumatoid Arthritis (KARRA) cohort study, our representative clinical study, of which purpose is to elucidate the risk factors of atherosclerosis in Korean patients with rheumatoid arthritis, has been conducted by chiefly in our division since 2009, and the high-quality data provided by this prospective cohort study have been reported in many scientific societies including American College of Rheumatology and was published in Rheumatology (Oxford) in 2015. Besides, we have been participated in  several domestic investigator initiated trials for diverse rheumatic diseases and the global biologics phase 2 and 3 clinical trials.
In the basic science research filed, the ¡®Autoimmunity and Immunoregulation Research Laboratory¡¯ in our division, which is composed of post-docs, PhD students and foreign visiting professors, has established ties with many research institutes including Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Mediplex, D&P Biotech and Harvard University, and accomplished the state-of-the-art basic researches on underlying mechanisms of rheumatoid arthritis. Our research projects have been supported by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Korea. The data of superior quality from these basic science studies have been reported in many scientific societies such as European League Against Rheumatism and American College of Rheumatology and was published in international peer-reviewed journals such as Arthritis and Rheumatism, an official journal of the American College of Rheumatology. In addition, Professor Young Mo Kang devised a scheme for the research society of arthritis and was the first and second president of the Synovitis Research Society.
Professors

Chairman: Eon Jeong Nam, MD, PhD
Yong Mo Kang, MD, PhD
Sang Jin Lee, MD​