August 13, 2020

The Lupus Research Alliance is proud to congratulate one of our funded researchers, Lindsey A. Criswell, MD, MPH, DSc, on her new appointment as Director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).

Currently Vice Chancellor of Research at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Criswell has devoted her career to studying lupus as well as rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. With a grant from the LRA, she led a ground-breaking study using pioneering technology to analyze blood samples of people with lupus for hundreds of chemicals to see if their exposure impacted the course of severe disease.

“We awarded Dr. Criswell one of our most prestigious awards, not only because she is a brilliant researcher with a particular dedication to our lupus community, but because her project showed tremendous promise to understanding what causes disease progression,” commented Kenneth M. Farber, LRA President and CEO. “There is no doubt that with her extraordinary scientific insight, she will lead NIAMS to great discoveries in unraveling the causes and treatment of autoimmune diseases. We also thank Dr. Bob Carter for leading the agency so very capably while serving as Acting Director.”

NIAMS is one of the 27 institutes and centers that are part of America’s medical research agency, the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIAMS supports research focuses on the causes, treatment and prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases, of which lupus is one of the most complex.