Hendy Krystyanto

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease which affects 1% of the population. The hallmark of the autoimmune response in RA is the production of anti citrullinated-protein antibodies (ACPA). We hypothesize that ACPA-producing B cells may have direct roles in the pathogenesis of RA besides producing the antibodies. My project aims to characterize ACPA-specific B cells from RA patients using RNA sequencing, flow cytometry, cytokine screening, co-culture studies and to develop a strategy to target these cells specifically in vivo using synthetic chemistry approach.