Dr. Michael A Paley joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology as an Instructor in July, 2019.
Dr. Paley is a rheumatologist with a passion for inflammatory diseases that involve the eye. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Yale University as well as an MD and PhD in Immunology from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He then completed residency and fellowship training at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. He received an intramural research training award to study immune cell function at the National Institutes of Health (NIH): National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Dr. Paley is currently a Clinical Instructor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, where he works in a multidisciplinary clinic with ophthalmologists to treat aggressive autoimmune diseases, such as uveitis, scleritis, orbital inflammatory disease, and mucous membrane pemphigoid with targeted therapy.
His current research is focused on identifying basic mechanisms of ocular inflammation to better tailor treatments. To that end, he developed a repository for ocular and blood biospecimens of patients with uveitis and scleritis to determine pathogenic cells present within the eye and their peripheral blood correlates. In a parallel effort, he partnered with the Department of Ophthalmology to design and implement an investigator-initiated pilot study for the treatment of non-infectious uveitis in order to help develop additional potential therapies for these rare diseases. Ultimately, he plans to pair the rigorous analysis of human biospecimens with interventional trials to better understand disease pathogenesis and potentially stratify patients in terms of response to therapy.
Dr. Paley is also involved in teaching medical students and rheumatology fellows. He participates in the rheumatology small group breakout sessions for the medical school course. He also lectures the fellows during the summer lecture series “Rheummersion” and the Immunology Conference.