Professor Karim Raza BA, BMBCh, FRCP, PhD

Karim Raza

Department of Inflammation and Ageing
Professor of Clinical Rheumatology

Contact details

Telephone
+44 121 3713242
Email
k.raza@bham.ac.uk
Address
Department of Inflammation and Ageing
College of Medicine and Health
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Birmingham
B15 2WB

Karim Raza is Professor of Clinical Rheumatology in the Rheumatology Research Group within the Department of Inflammation and Ageing at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. 

Professor Raza has an active NHS clinical practice having worked as an Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust until September 2023 and from October 2023 as a Consultant Rheumatologist at Hywel Dda University Health Board, based in Aberystwyth.

Professor Raza qualified from Oxford in 1993 and achieved Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 1996. From 2000-2003 he worked as an Arthritis Research UK clinical training fellow studying the regulation of leukocyte apoptosis in early inflammatory arthritis.

Following the award of a PhD, he was appointed as Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Rheumatology in 2004. In 2009 he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and was awarded the prestigious Michael Mason Prize by the British Society for Rheumatology. He was promoted to Reader in 2011 and Professor in 2013.

Qualifications

  • FRCP 2009
  • PhD, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, 2004
  • BMBCh, Oxford University, 1993
  • BA (Physiological Sciences), Oxford University, 1990

Teaching

Positions have included:

  • Lead for Rheumatology for the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø's MBChB programme (2019-2023).

Postgraduate supervision

Positions have included:

  • Academic Representative on the West Midlands Clinical Rheumatology Training Committee (2017-2023)
  • Lead for the Kenedy Trust funded Birmingham MB PhD programme lead (2020-2023)

Research

Professor Raza’s research focuses on rheumatoid arthritis, the most common of the chronic inflammatory joint diseases. Within this disease area, his research addresses pathogenic mechanisms, biomarker development and strategies to enhance clinical outcomes for patients with a new onset of disease. Specifically he is interested in:

  1. Mechanisms driving the molecular basis for the switch to disease persistence and the timing of this switch in early arthritis.
  2. Predictors of outcome in patients with early inflammatory arthritis.
  3. Novel anti-inflammatory mechanisms that may be useful in the control of persistent inflammation, including vitamin D and endogenously generated glucocorticoids.
  4. Management pathways for patients with early rheumatoid arthritis, including the development of strategies to facilitate rapid patient assessment.
  5. Perspectives of patients and members of the public about RA and the concept of ‘risk’ in relation to RA to facilitate informed engagement with predictive and early treatment strategies.

Other activities

Positions of responsibility have included:

  1. Director of Research and Development at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (2014-2018).
  2. Head of the Rheumatology Research Group at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø (2021-2023).

Committee membership

  1. Member of the Arthritis Research UK Clinical Studies Central Progress Review Committee (2009- 2013), the Arthritis Research UK Research sub-committee (2013-2017) and the Versus Arthritis Fellowship Committee (2022-2023).
  2. Member of the following EULAR taskforces:
    1. ‘EULAR recommendations for the standardised content and structure of minimum data collection to harmonise observational research in rheumatoid arthritis’ (reported 2016).
    2. ‘EULAR classification criteria for arthralgia that is clinically suspect for progression to rheumatoid arthritis’ (reported 2016).
    3. ‘Update of the 2007 EULAR recommendations for the management of early arthritis’ (reported 2016).
    4. EULAR Points to Consider for conducting clinical trials in individuals at-risk of rheumatoid arthritis (reported 2021).
    5. EULAR Recommendations for the use and interpretation of laboratory diagnostic tests for the management of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (current).
    6. EULAR tools to predict RA in clinically suspect arthralgia patients (current)

Editorial Board membership

Member of the Editorial board for Rheumatology (2011-2015) and for RMD Open (2017-present)

Publications

Highlight publications

Wei, K, Korsunsky, I, Marshall, JL, Gao, A, Watts, GFM, Major, T, Croft, AP, Watts, J, Blazar, PE, Lange, JK, Thornhill, TS, Filer, A, Raza, K, Donlin, LT, Accelerating Medicines Partnership Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (AMP RA/SLE) Consortium, Siebel, CW, Buckley, CD, Raychaudhuri, S & Brenner, MB 2020, '', Nature, vol. 582, no. 7811, pp. 259–264.

Nijjar, JS, Morton, FR, Bang, H, Buckley, C, van der Heijde, D, Gilmour, A, Paterson, C, McInnes, IB, Porter, D, Raza, K & Scottish Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Inception Cohort Investigators 2021, '', The Lancet Rheumatology, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. e284-e293.

Fenton, C, Doig, C, Fareed, S, Naylor, A, Morrell, AP, Addison, O, Wehmeyer, C, Buckley, C, Cooper, MS, Lavery, G, Raza, K & Hardy, R 2019, '', Arthritis Research & Therapy, vol. 21, no. 1, 188.

Filer, A, Ward, LSC, Kemble, S, Davies, C, Munir, H, Rogers, R, Raza, K, Buckley, C, Nash, G & McGettrick, H 2017, '', Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, vol. 76, no. 12, pp. 2105-2112.

Juarez, M, Bang, H, Hammar, F, Reimer, U, Dyke, B, Sahbudin, I, Buckley, C, Fisher, B, Filer, A & Raza, K 2016, '', Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, vol. 75, no. 6, pp. 1099-1107.

Recent publications

Article

Rayner, F, Hiu, S, Melville, A, Bigirumurame, T, Anderson, AE, Dyke, B, Kerrigan, S, McGucken, A, Prichard, J, Shahrokhabadi, MS, Hilkens, C, Buckley, C, McInnes, IB, Ng, W-F, Goodyear, CS, Teare, D, Filer, A, Siebert, S, Raza, K, Pratt, AG, Baker, KF & Isaacs, JD 2025, '', BMJ open, vol. 15, e092478.

Sharma-Oates, A, Dunne, N, Raza, K, Padyukov, L, Rivera, N, van der Helm-van Mil, AHM, Pratt, AG, Duggal, N, Jones, S & Lord, J 2025, '', GeroScience.

van Steenbergen, HW, Doornkamp, F, Alivernini, S, Backlund, J, Codreanu, C, Cohen, SB, Combe, B, Cope, AP, Deane, KD, England, BR, Falahee, M, de Jong, PHP, Kleyer, A, Lacaille, D, Maat, B, Mankia, K, van Mulligen, E, Nagy, G, O'Neill, LJ, Rodamaker, L, Sahbudin, I, van Schaardenburg, D, Sepriano, A, da Silva, JAP, De Smet, L, Sparks, JA, Steyerberg, EW, Studenic, P, Wethingtone, E, Landewe, RL, Raza, K & van der Helm-van Mil, AHM 2025, '', Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

van Steenbergen, HW, Doornkamp, F, Alivernini, S, Backlund, J, Codreanu, C, Cohen, SB, Combe, B, Cope, AP, Deane, KD, England, BR, Falahee, M, de Jong, PHP, Kleyer, A, Lacaille, D, Maat, B, Mankia, K, van Mulligen, E, Nagy, G, O'Neil, LJ, Rodamaker, L, Sahbudin, I, van Schaardenburg, D, Sepriano, A, da Silva, JAP, De Smet, L, Sparks, JA, Steyerberg, EW, Studenic, P, Wethington, E, Landewé, RL, Raza, K & van der Helm-van Mil, AHM 2025, '', Arthritis & Rheumatology (Hoboken).

Donada, CA, Theisen, E, Zhang, F, Nathan, A, Fairfield, ML, Rupani, KV, Jones, D, Johannes, KP, Accelerating Medicines Partnership RA/SLE Network, Raychaudhuri, S, Dwyer, DF, Jonsson, AH & Brenner, MB 2025, '', Nature, vol. 641, pp. 211–221.

Marzeda, AM, Schwenzer, A, Didov, BS, Woolcock, K, Richard, J-B, Jennings, LK, Jule, AM, Yang, N, Davidson, S, Sansom, SN, Cribbs, AP, Dendrou, CA, Yue, WW, Goodyear, CS, Raza, K & Midwood, KS 2025, '', Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

van Wesemael, TJ, Morton, FR, Heutz, JW, Maurits, MP, Dorjée, AL, Porter, D, Huizinga, TWJ, Raza, K, Toes, REM, Knevel, R, de Jong, PHP, Svärd, A & van der Woude, D 2025, '', Arthritis Research & Therapy, vol. 27, no. 1, 101.

Bolton, C, Mahony, CB, Clay, E, Reis Nisa, P, Lomholt, S, Hackland, A, Chin, PS, Smith, CG, Alexiou, V, Nguyen, HD, Thyagarajan, M, Sheikh, Z, Davis, P, Chippington, S, Compeyrot-Lacassagne, S, Davda, S, Foley, C, Turtsevich, I, Ingledow, B, Kupiec, K, Kelly, J, Hanlon, MM, DiCarlo, E, Jones, LJ, Smith, SL, Eyre, S, Neag, G, Kemble, S, Madhu, R, Palshikar, MG, Korsunsky, I, Gao, C, Tran, M, Dendrou, C, Buckley, CD, Coles, MC, Raza, K, MAPJAG Study Group, Gravallese, E, Filer, A, Wei, K, Al-Abadi, E, Rosser, EC, Wedderburn, LR & Croft, A 2025, '', Science Translational Medicine, vol. 17, no. 805, eadt6050.

Crastin, A, Shanker, A, Sagmeister, MS, Taylor, A, Lavery, GG, Raza, K & Hardy, RS 2025, '', Rheumatology, vol. 64, no. 7, pp. 4371-4381.

Cope, A, Jasenecova, M, Vasconcelos, J, Filer, A, Raza, K, Qureshi, S, D'Agostino, M-A, McInnes, IB, Isaacs, J, Pratt, AG, Fisher, B, Buckley, CD, Emery, P, Ho, P, Buch, MH, Ciurtin, C, van Schaardenburg, D, Huizinga, TWJ, Toes, R, Georgiou, E, Kelly, J, Murphy, CL, Prevost, AT & APIPPRA Study Investigators 2024, '', The Lancet.

Accelerating Medicines Partnership RA/SLE Network, Faust, HJ, Cheng, TY, Korsunsky, I, Watts, GFM, Gal-Oz, ST, Trim, WV, Kongthong, S, Jonsson, AH, Simmons, DP, Zhang, F, Padera, R, Chubinskaya, S, Wei, K, Raychaudhuri, S, Lynch, L, Moody, DB & Brenner, MB 2024, '', Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 9859.

DiSantostefano, RL, Simons, G, Englbrecht, M, Humphreys, JH, Bruce, IN, Bywall, KS, Radawski, C, Raza, K, Falahee, M & Veldwijk, J 2024, '', Medical Decision Making, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 189-202.

Martin, CS, Crastin, A, Sagmeister, MS, Kalirai, MS, Turner, JD, MacDonald, L, Kurowska-Stolarska, M, Scheel-Toellner, D, Taylor, AE, Gilligan, LC, Storbeck, K, Price, M, Gorvin, CM, Filer, A, Mahida, R, Clark, AR, Jones, SW, Raza, K, Hewison, M & Hardy, RS 2024, '', Journal of Autoimmunity, vol. 147, 103263.

Law, C, Wacleche, VS, Cao, Y, Pillai, A, Sowerby, J, Sowerby, B, Horisberger, A, Bracero, S, Skidanova, V, Li, ZJ, Adejoorin, I, Dillon, E, Benque, IJ, Pena Nunez, D, Simmons, DP, Keegan, J, Chen, L, Baker, T, Brohawn, PZ, Al-Mossawi, H, Hao, L-Y, Jones, B, Rao, N, Qu, Y, Alves, S, Jonsson, AH, Shaw, KS, Vleugels, RA, Massarotti, E, Costenbader, KH, Brenner, MB, Lederer, JA, Hultquist, JF, Choi, J, Rao, DA & Accelerating Medicines Partnership RA/SLE Network 2024, '', Nature, vol. 631, pp. 857-866.

Review article

Scott, IC, Babatunde, O, Barker, C, Beesley, R, Beesley, R, Birkinshaw, H, Brooke, M, Chaplin, H, Chapman, L, Ciurtin, C, Dale, J, Dockrell, D, Dures, E, Harrison, K, Jani, M, Lee, C, McCarron, M, Mallen, CD, O’Connor, A, Pidgeon, C, Pincus, T, Pratt, D, Prior, Y, Raza, K, Rutter-Locher, Z, Sharma, S, Shaw, K, Small, S, Smith, T, Tiffin, L, Tsigarides, J, Xenophontos, M & Shenker, NG 2024, '', Rheumatology Advances in Practice, vol. 8, no. 4, rkae128rk.

Expertise

Rheumatoid Arthritis