Gina A. Montealegre Sanchez, M.D., M.S.

Intramural Clinical Management and Operations Branch (ICMOB)

NIH Main Campus, Bethesda, MD

Gina A. Montealegre Sanchez, M.D., M.S.

Staff Clinician

Contact: For contact information, search the NIH Enterprise Directory.

Photo of Gina A. Montealegre Sanchez, M.D., M.S.

Major Areas of Research

  • Autoinflammatory Diseases
  • COVID-19
  • Pediatric Rheumatology, General Pediatrics

Program Description

Dr. Montealegre is an associate research physician with extensive background in the development, execution, and oversight of natural history studies and clinical trials in rare autoinflammatory diseases and other chronic conditions.

During her tenure as the Director of the Clinical Trials Unit at the Translational Autoinflammatory Disease Section (TADS), Dr. Montealegre led two novel treatment trials. The first one involved patients with interferonopathies and the second, patients with Deficiency of the IL-1 Receptor antagonist (DIRA). Results from the latter study supported the FDA approval of Rilonacept for DIRA in December 2020.

In 2020, Dr. Montealegre expanded her work to support COVID-19 and other pediatric research initiatives sponsored by NIAID investigators. She is currently the NIH site Principal Investigator for the Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 and MIS-C Long-Term Outcome study which has recruited over 1,000 patients and is currently in the follow-up phase.

Biography

Education

M.D., Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia

M.S., Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio

Languages Spoken

Spanish

Dr. Montealegre received her M.D. from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia. She completed a pediatric residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA, followed by a fellowship in pediatric rheumatology at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Montealegre received her M.S. in Clinical Research from Case Western Reserve University. She is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric rheumatology.

At NIH, she serves different committees, including the Pediatric Care Committee, NIAID Inpatient-Outpatient Working group, and CNH-NIAID Partnership Governance Committee.

Clinical Studies

Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 and MIS-C 

  • Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 and MIS-C Long-term Follow-up (PECOS)

Selected Publications

Sanchez GAM, Reinhardt A, Ramsey S, Wittkowski H, Hashkes PJ, Berkun Y, Schalm S, Murias S, Dare JA, Brown D, Stone DL, Gao L, Klausmeier T, Foell D, de Jesus AA, Chapelle DC, Kim H, Dill S, Colbert RA, Failla L, Kost B, O'Brien M, Reynolds JC, Folio LR, Calvo KR, Paul SM, Weir N, Brofferio A, Soldatos A, Biancotto A, Cowen EW, Digiovanna JJ, Gadina M, Lipton AJ, Hadigan C, Holland SM, Fontana J, Alawad AS, Brown RJ, Rother KI, Heller T, Brooks KM, Kumar P, Brooks SR, Waldman M, Singh HK, Nickeleit V, Silk M, Prakash A, Janes JM, Ozen S, Wakim PG, Brogan PA, Macias WL, Goldbach-Mansky R. JAK1/2 inhibition with baricitinib in the treatment of autoinflammatory interferonopathies. J Clin Invest. 2018 Jul 2;128(7):3041-3052.

Garg M, de Jesus AA, Chapelle D, Dancey P, Herzog R, Rivas-Chacon R, Muskardin TLW, Reed A, Reynolds JC, Goldbach-Mansky R, Sanchez GAM. Rilonacept maintains long-term inflammatory remission in patients with deficiency of the IL-1 receptor antagonist. JCI Insight. 2017 Aug 17;2(16):e94838.

Liu Y, Jesus AA, Marrero B, Yang D, Ramsey SE, Sanchez GAM, Tenbrock K, Wittkowski H, Jones OY, Kuehn HS, Lee CR, DiMattia MA, Cowen EW, Gonzalez B, Palmer I, DiGiovanna JJ, Biancotto A, Kim H, Tsai WL, Trier AM, Huang Y, Stone DL, Hill S, Kim HJ, St Hilaire C, Gurprasad S, Plass N, Chapelle D, Horkayne-Szakaly I, Foell D, Barysenka A, Candotti F, Holland SM, Hughes JD, Mehmet H, Issekutz AC, Raffeld M, McElwee J, Fontana JR, Minniti CP, Moir S, Kastner DL, Gadina M, Steven AC, Wingfield PT, Brooks SR, Rosenzweig SD, Fleisher TA, Deng Z, Boehm M, Paller AS, Goldbach-Mansky R. Activated STING in a vascular and pulmonary syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2014 Aug 7;371(6):507-518.

Cetin Gedik K, Lamot L, Romano M, Demirkaya E, Piskin D, Torreggiani S, Adang LA, Armangue T, Barchus K, Cordova DR, Crow YJ, Dale RC, Durrant KL, Eleftheriou D, Fazzi EM, Gattorno M, Gavazzi F, Hanson EP, Lee-Kirsch MA, Montealegre Sanchez GA, Neven B, Orcesi S, Ozen S, Poli MC, Schumacher E, Tonduti D, Uss K, Aletaha D, Feldman BM, Vanderver A, Brogan PA, Goldbach-Mansky R. The 2021 European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology/American College of Rheumatology Points to Consider for Diagnosis and Management of Autoinflammatory Type I Interferonopathies: CANDLE/PRAAS, SAVI, and AGS. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2022 May;74(5):735-751.

Sacco K, Castagnoli R, Vakkilainen S, Liu C, Delmonte OM, Oguz C, Kaplan IM, Alehashemi S, Burbelo PD, Bhuyan F, de Jesus AA, Dobbs K, Rosen LB, Cheng A, Shaw E, Vakkilainen MS, Pala F, Lack J, Zhang Y, Fink DL, Oikonomou V, Snow AL, Dalgard CL, Chen J, Sellers BA, Montealegre Sanchez GA, Barron K, Rey-Jurado E, Vial C, Poli MC, Licari A, Montagna D, Marseglia GL, Licciardi F, Ramenghi U, Discepolo V, Lo Vecchio A, Guarino A, Eisenstein EM, Imberti L, Sottini A, Biondi A, Mató S, Gerstbacher D, Truong M, Stack MA, Magliocco M, Bosticardo M, Kawai T, Danielson JJ, Hulett T, Askenazi M, Hu S; NIAID Immune Response to COVID Group; Chile MIS-C Group; Pavia Pediatric COVID-19 Group; Cohen JI, Su HC, Kuhns DB, Lionakis MS, Snyder TM, Holland SM, Goldbach-Mansky R, Tsang JS, Notarangelo LD. Immunopathological signatures in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and pediatric COVID-19. Nat Med. 2022 May;28(5):1050-1062.

Visit PubMed for a complete publication listing.

Content last reviewed on