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UNC School of Medicine

Category: Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology

  • Loeser Receives $2.2 Million NIH Award to Study Mechanisms Driving Joint Tissue Destruction in Osteoarthritis

    Richard F. Loeser, Jr., MD, Director of the Thurston Arthritis Research Center and Joseph P. Archie, Jr. Eminent Professor of Medicine in UNC’s Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, received a $2.265 million, 4-year, award from the National Institute on Aging for his project, “Integrin Signaling in Osteoarthritis.” Osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of pain and c … Read more

  • Carolina Care Excellence

    128 Physicians and Advanced Practice Providers Awarded 2026 Carolina Care Excellence

    Each year, UNC Hospitals administers the Press Ganey Medical Practice survey to solicit feedback from patients. The survey asks our patients about their likelihood of recommending their provider’s practice to their friends and family. This year, 128 Department of Medicine physicians and advanced practice providers received the highest recommendations. We are honored to recognize … Read more

  • Saira-Sheikh

    Sheikh and team publish guide for conducting CAR T-cell trials for patients with SLE

    Saira Sheikh, MD Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, best known for its cancer-treating abilities, are being explored as an option for managing autoimmune rheumatic diseases. A team of investigators, including Saira Sheikh, MD, published a guide in ACR Open Rheumatology, providing a detailed exploration of the framework required for rheumatologists to initiate and s … Read more

  • Richard Loeser, MD

    Dr. Richard Loeser Receives the 2025 Distinguished Basic/Translational Investigator Award from the ACR

    he American College of Rheumatology will be awarding Richard F. Loeser, Jr., MD, MACR, Eminent Professor in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Director of the Thurston Arthritis Research Center, the 2025 Distinguished Basic/Translational Investigator Award at this year’s ACR Convergence meeting in Chicago, Illinois. As recipient of th … Read more

  • Saira-Sheikh

    Sheikh, Lee & Niethammer Receive $4.4 Million 2-Year NIH Award to Advance Multi-Modal Machine Learning for Earlier Diagnosis of Lupus

    From left to right: Saira Sheikh, MD, Yueh Lee, MD, PhD, Marc Niethammer, PhD A rheumatologist, neuroradiologist, and computer scientist have joined forces to blend medical expertise with AI/machine learning to reimagine the future of lupus diagnosis and care. Saira Sheikh, MD, the Linda Coley Sewell Distinguished Professor of Medicine at UNC and Chair of the Lupus Clinical Inves … Read more

  • Faculty & Staff in the News Throughout June

    The clickable links below navigate directly to outside media articles which featured Department of Medicine faculty and staff throughout the month of June 2025. David Wohl, MD, had a video interview on injectable PrEP. Sarah McGill, MD, spoke about alpha-gal syndromes’ effect on the digestive system. Onyinye I. Iweala, MD, PhD, did a Q&A on managing care for patients with ins … Read more

  • richard-loeser

    Richard Loeser Receives Department of Defense Grant for Investigating Post-Traumatic Oseteoarthritis

    Richard Loeser, Jr., MD, Director of the Thurston Arthritis Research Clinic and a Joseph P. Archie Eminent Professor of Medicine, was awarded a $500K grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) for his study entitled,” A novel drug discovery approach for preventing post-traumatic osteoarthritis.” The DoD’s Arthritis Research Program Focused Research Award supports high-risk high-r … Read more

  • Faculty & Staff in the News Throughout May

    The clickable links below navigate directly to outside media articles which featured Department of Medicine faculty and staff throughout the month of May 2025. Maureen Dale, MD, spoke on the growing demand for geriatricians. Becky White, MD, MPH, is designing an intervention to address HIV prevention needs with the N.C. Formerly Incarcerated Transitions program. Brad Drummond, MD … Read more

  • Faculty & Staff in the News Throughout April

    The clickable links below navigate directly to outside media articles which featured Department of Medicine faculty and staff throughout the month of April. John Batsis, MD, discussed a rare side effect of statin John Buse, MD, was interviewed about making GLP-1s affordable. Emily Chang, MD, explained 6 behaviors that will help keep your kidneys healthy. Edwin Kim, MD, noted the … Read more

  • Amanda E. Nelson, MD, MSCR, RhMSUS

    Amanda Nelson Contributes to Landmark Osteoarthritis Study

    Left to right: Amanda E. Nelson, MD, MSCR, RhMSUS; Liubov Arbeeva, MS; Yvonne Golightly, PT, MS, PhD Amanda E. Nelson, MD, MSCR, RhMSUS, professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, and other Thurston Arthritis Research Center researchers coauthored a study entitled, “Translational genomics of osteoarthritis in 1,962,069 individuals” in Nature. T … Read more

  • Drs. Saira and Shehzad Sheikhs’ Project Voted First Place by Peers at FNIH Biomarkers Consortium

    Saira Sheikh, MD, Linda Coley Sewell Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the UNC Division of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology and Director of the Clinical Trials Program at UNC’s Thurston Arthritis Research Center, along with her brother Shehzad Sheikh, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine in the UNC Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, were invited to pitch their co … Read more

  • Faculty & Staff in the News Throughout April

    The clickable links below navigate directly to outside media articles which featured Department of Medicine faculty and staff throughout the month of April. Drs. Andrew Moon, Hanna Sanoff, Donna Evon  and A. Sidney Barritt IV contributed to a study on improving the quality of life for people with hepatocellular carcinoma. Ashwin Somasundaram, MD, and Hanna Sanoff, MD, MPH, found … Read more