Betty Diamond, Md

Biography

Dr. Betty Diamond graduated with a BA from Harvard University and an MD from Harvard Medical School. She performed a residency in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and received postdoctoral training in immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Diamond has headed the rheumatology divisions at Albert Einstein School of Medicine and at Columbia University Medical Center. She also directed the Medical Scientist Training Program at Albert Einstein School of Medicine for many years. She is currently head of the Center for Autoimmune, Musculoskeletal and Hematopoietic Diseases at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and director of the PhD and MD/PhD programs of the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. Betty Diamond graduated with a BA from Harvard University and an MD from Harvard Medical School. She performed a residency in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and received postdoctoral training in immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Diamond has headed the rheumatology divisions at Albert Einstein School of Medicine and at Columbia University Medical Center. She also directed the Medical Scientist Training Program at Albert Einstein School of Medicine for many years. She is currently head of the Center for Autoimmune, Musculoskeletal and Hematopoietic Diseases at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and director of the PhD and MD/PhD programs of the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

Research Interest

There are many diseases characterized by the presence of autoantibodies, although the contribution of the autoreactive B cells and autoantibodies to tissue injury in these diseases is often unclear. Dr. Diamond’s laboratory studies DNA-reactive B cells in the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus. Her team is interested in the alterations within B cells that lead to the survival and activation of DNA-reactive B cells and in the alterations in other cells of the immune system that affect B cell function and can also lead to the survival and activation of DNA-reactive B cells. The laboratory is particularly interested in the regulation of autoreactive B cells that acquire autoreactivity by somatic mutation during a germinal center response and in determining whether the processes that govern the selection of the B cell repertoire early in B cell development are the same as those that govern selection after activation. These studies are designed to provide new strategies to protect against autoimmune disease.