Arthritis Foundation and CARRA Increase Support for Pediatric Rheumatology Research by Awarding $2 Million in Grants

ATLANTA, July 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to changes in the federal funding environment, the Arthritis Foundation and the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) have increased funding for their joint grant program that supports physician-led research in pediatric rheumatology. This year, the CARRA-Arthritis Foundation Grant Program will award nearly $2 million – an increase of $200,000 from the previous year – to advance research in this critical field.

In light of recent federal research funding cuts, the Arthritis Foundation and CARRA each contributed an additional $100,000 to support the grant program this year. Meanwhile, demand for research support continues to grow, as the program received almost a 50 percent increase in grant applications compared to last year.

"The CARRA–Arthritis Foundation Grant Program provides critical support as there are very few funding sources for pediatric rheumatology research," said CARRA President, Stacy Ardoin, M.D., who is also Division Chief of Rheumatology at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "We're committed to keeping pediatric rheumatic diseases at the forefront of scientific discovery to ensure that children living with these complex conditions will have better treatment options and an improved quality of life."

Children growing up with arthritis and other rheumatic diseases are burdened with pain, disability, frequent medical appointments, and the emotional toll of living with a chronic disease. These children and their families need researchers to find answers to the many questions they have about their diseases and the most effective ways to treat them.

Since its inception in 2016, the program has provided $10 million in funding to advance research in pediatric rheumatic diseases and help improve the lives of the patients.

With this year's additional funds, the CARRA-Arthritis Foundation Grant Program funded one additional mentored career development award to support an early-career investigator and one additional bridge award.

This year's awards will fund research in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), pediatric lupus, juvenile dermatomyositis, chronic nonbacterial osteomyelitis (CNO) and other childhood rheumatic diseases. There were seven types of grants awarded: advancing biosample collection, large grant, small grant, bridge, fellow, mentored career development award, and clinical management JIA grant.

The 2025 awardees represent a cross-section of researchers at various career stages, illustrating how the program empowers pediatric rheumatology research throughout our diverse community. Five of this year's 13 awardees are first-time recipients of a CARRA-Arthritis Foundation grant.

The CARRA-Arthritis Foundation Grant Program has provided over 140 grants to more than 100 researchers at over 70 academic institutions since it was launched in 2016.

"The Arthritis Foundation is proud to have partnered with CARRA for a decade to advance care for pediatric rheumatic diseases," said Anna Lampe, Ph.D., Senior Director, Autoimmune and Inflammatory Arthritis at the Arthritis Foundation. "Through the CARRA-Arthritis Foundation grant program, we've made meaningful investments in childhood arthritis research—supporting a diverse range of topics and investigators at various career stages and helping researchers build momentum and secure future funding."

Since the program began, every grant application has been reviewed by a team of scientists and a patient or caregiver to ensure that proposed research is meaningful to patients and reflects their priorities. Patients and families are embedded throughout CARRA, and their involvement is crucial to CARRA's mission, Ardoin added.

Here are few examples of innovative research that will be funded by this year's grants:

Many JIA patients want to stop medicines once the disease is under control, but doctors can't always tell who will have a flare and who will stay well without medicine. The new clinical management JIA grant will support a project that addresses this dilemma. Led by Daniel Horton, M.D., M.S.C.E, of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the "JIA Flares, Recapture of Inactive Disease, and the Patient's Voice" study will use the CARRA Registry to see if patients' and caregivers' views on disease activity can predict flares and how well they can be controlled. It will also look for ways to predict who will have easy-to-control flares and who might have more trouble. This research will help everyone make better decisions about stopping or reducing medicines.

Another project aims to lay the groundwork for more individualized treatments for patients with kidney disease caused by ANCA-associated vasculitis, known as AAGN, which leads to kidney failure in about 25% of patients. Ivana Stojkic, M.D., of Nationwide Children's Hospital, received the mentored career development award for her study using cutting edge genetic technologies to better understand the root causes of kidney damage in AAGN. Stojkic will examine proteins from urine of AAGN patients to see which proteins are associated with kidney inflammation and the risk of end-stage kidney disease. This builds on her previous research looking at genetic expression of kidney tissue in AAGN, which provided evidence that immune cells play an important role.

Kaveh Ardalan, M.D., M.S., of Duke University School of Medicine is a recipient of a bridge award to support his ongoing research into better understanding how adolescents and young adults with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus and dermatomyositis think about their risk of cardiovascular disease, need for cardiovascular health (CVH) behavior intervention, and measurement of stress. Ardalan previously conducted a study that showed nearly all JSLE/JDM patients need to improve CVH behaviors, and that high stress is associated with worse CVH behaviors, especially in adolescents and young adults. His prior work also found that most of these patients experiencing high stress cannot access mental health specialists.

Arthritis affects both adults and children across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and gender. JIA, the most common pediatric rheumatic disease, affects as many as 16 to 50 children per 100,000 in the United States. An autoimmune disease, JIA has seven different subtypes. Although the management of JIA and other pediatric rheumatic conditions has improved over the years, there are still many gaps in the treatment of these diseases, as well as the understanding of their pathologies, progression, and impacts.

2025 CARRA-Arthritis Foundation Grant Program Awardees

Kaveh Ardalan, M.D., M.S., of Duke University School of Medicine 
Bridge Grant
Patient-Centered Stress Reduction & Cardiovascular Health Promotion Intervention: Engaging Patients with Lupus & Dermatomyositis 

Lauren Covert, M.D., of Duke University School of Medicine
Bridge Grant
Using Bioengineered Human Muscle to Understand Mechanisms of Juvenile Dermatomyositis 

Brian Feldman, M.D., M.Sc., of The Hospital for Sick Children
Large Grant
Creation and Implementation of Timed Squat Muscle Function Assessment Curves to Enable Strength Assessment in Children with Childhood Myositis 

Linda Hiraki, M.D., Sc.D., of The Hospital for Sick Children 
Advancing Biosample Collection Award
Epigenetics of cSLE in Subtyping and Understanding Disease Heterogeneity 

Daniel Horton, M.D., M.S.C.E., of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Clinical Management of JIA Grant
JIA Flares, Recapture of Inactive Disease, and the Patient's Voice 

Sivakanathan Kasinathan, M.D., Ph.D., of Stanford University School of Medicine
Mentored Career Development Award
Analysis of Somatic Genetic Variation in Pediatric Rheumatic Diseases 

Sahar Lotfi-Emran, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIH NIAMS)
Advancing Biosample Collection Award
Identification of Pathogenic T Cell Clones in Enthesitis Related Arthritis 

Brittney Newby, M.D., Ph.D., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Mentored Career Development Award
IMPACT-ERA: Identifying Multi-Omic Profiles for Assessing and Characterizing Treatment Response in Enthesitis-Related Arthritis 

Hanna Saltzman, M.D., of The University of Utah 
Fellow Grant
Developing a Patient-Oriented, Nature-Based Intervention for Adolescents with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis 

William Soulsby, M.D., of the Regents of the University of California, San Francisco
Small Grant
Predictors of Corticosteroid Dosing and Disease Severity in Newly Diagnosed Pediatric Lupus Nephritis 

Ivana Stojkic, M.D., of Nationwide Children's Hospital
Mentored Career Development Award
A Multi-Omic Approach to Uncover AAGN Mechanisms and Biomarkers

Joy Um, M.D., of Washington University in St. Louis
Fellow Grant
Investigating the Role of Pathogenic CD8 T Cells in HLA-B27 Positive Juvenile Spondyloarthritis 

Yongdong Zhao, M.D., Ph.D., of Seattle Children's Hospital
Large Grant
Assessment of Disease Activity Using Deep Learning on MRI Images in Children with Chronic Nonbacterial Osteomyelitis (CNO) 

About the Arthritis Foundation:
The Arthritis Foundation is fighting for all people who live with arthritis. As a Champion of Yes, the Arthritis Foundation's mission is to turn the obstacles arthritis causes into opportunities. The Arthritis Foundation champions life-changing solutions and medical advancements, and it also provides ways for people to connect, break down barriers in health care and join the fight for a cure — uniting hearts, minds and resources to change the future of arthritis. To join the fight to cure arthritis, visit arthritis.org.

About the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA):
CARRA's mission is to conduct collaborative research to prevent, treat, and cure pediatric rheumatic diseases. Formed in 2002 by a small group of dedicated physicians, CARRA now has 800 members at more than 120 institutions. CARRA has built the largest observational multi-center registry for pediatric rheumatic disease and operates two biorepositories – one in the US and one in Canada. CARRA is a 501(c)3 registered non-profit. Learn more at carragroup.org.

Media Contact:
Erin Moriarty Wade

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SOURCE Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA)