Amr Sawalha

MD

Amr H. Sawalha, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, and Vincent Londino Endowed Chair in Pediatric Rheumatology at the University of Pittsburgh, Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine. He is Director of the Division of Rheumatology at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he will also establish and lead a new Autoimmune Genomics Research Center. Dr. Sawalha is Director of the Comprehensive Lupus Center of Excellence that spans the clinical and research enterprises of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh. He is a graduate of Jordan University of Science and Technology, and completed his residency training at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and his fellowship in Rheumatology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Sawalha was on faculty at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation before he returned to Michigan (2012-2019), where he was Professor of Internal Medicine and Marvin and Betty Danto Research Professor of Connective Tissue Research, the Director of the NIH-funded rheumatology training grant, and the Associate Director of the NIH-funded University of Michigan Basic Autoimmunity Center of Excellence. Dr. Sawalha’s research program focuses on elucidating genetic and epigenetic contribution to the pathogenesis of systemic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. His team applies state-of-the-art genomic, epigenomic, and bioinformatics methodologies, and subsequent functional studies using both in vitro and in vivo systems to identify and characterize genetic loci and pathways involved in the pathogenesis of immune-mediated diseases. He has authored over 140 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and review articles. He is on the editorial board of several journals in his field and serves as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals in rheumatology, genetics, and immunology. He is a member of the Medical Scientific Advisory Council of Lupus Foundation of America and member of the Vasculitis Foundation Medical and Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Sawalha has received numerous awards including the Edmund L Dubois, MD, Memorial Lectureship Award from the American College of Rheumatology in recognition for his work in lupus, and has been elected as member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.