Dr. Pascual is a pediatric rheumatologist whose research has focused on understanding pediatric inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with the goal of identifying therapeutic targets. Studies from her laboratory contributed to the discovery that type I interferon and interleukin 1 (IL-1) are pathogenic players in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Systemic-onset Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (sJIA), respectively. Using genomic approaches, her group identified novel pathways to target therapeutically, as well as unique signatures to follow patients in the clinic and assess responses to therapy. She has also been at the forefront of clinical trials using IL-1 blockers in sJIA, which have shown remarkable clinical benefits in patients. Dr. Pascual is currently the Program Director of an NIAID-funded U19 Autoimmunity Center of Excellence and NIAMS-funded P50 Center for Lupus Research. After spending most of her career as a clinicianscientist in Dallas, in 2017 she joined Weill Cornell Medicine, where she serves as the Director of the Drukier Institute for Children’s Health.