I have a lifetime interest in pediatric rheumatology. I begin to be interested in juvenile sclerosis during my fellowship in Vancouver. I had one of my first ACR Congress Posters with Prof Tom Lehman from Cornell University in New York USA. I conducted a cross sectional multinational survey of clinical features, which was published 2000, containing the largest number of patients ever surveyed. I am founding member of the juvenile scleroderma working group of the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society and was leader for several years I am lead of the clinical affairs of the juvenile scleroderma working group of the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society since 2023. I am member of EUSTAR and leading the pediatric working group of the Scleroderma Clinical Trial Consortium. I am the PI and founder of the Juvenile Scleroderma Inception Cohort, which is currently the largest cohort of juvenile Systemic Scleroderma in the world.

I am organizing the annual Hamburg meeting regarding juvenile Scleroderma for the last 18 years.Based on these meetings we published guidance for juvenile localized scleroderma, Raynaud’s in children and juvenile systemic scleroderma assessment and treatment. I was part of the SHARE initiative for juvenile systemic scleroderma and I am the first author of the guidance publication for “best treatment” and for stemm cell therapy.

Our center is one of the leading centers in Europe for Phase II, III and IV studies regarding upcoming new medications for juvenile systemic sclerosis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and JIA associated uveitis.