- About
- Strategic Plan
- Structure
- Governance
- Scientific divisions
- ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells
- ACRF Chemical Biology
- Advanced Technology and Biology
- Bioinformatics
- Blood Cells and Blood Cancer
- Clinical Translation
- Epigenetics and Development
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence
- Inflammation
- Personalised Oncology
- Population Health and Immunity
- Structural Biology
- Ubiquitin Signalling
- Laboratory operations
- Funding
- Annual reports
- Human research ethics
- Scientific integrity
- Institute life
- Career opportunities
- Business Development
- Business Development Office
- Partnering opportunities
- A complete cure for HBV
- A stable efficacious Toxoplasma vaccine
- Activating SMCHD1 to treat FSHD
- Improving vision outcomes in retinal detachment
- Intercepting inflammation with RIPK2 inhibitors
- Novel inhibitors for the treatment of lupus
- Novel malaria vaccine
- Novel mucolytics for the treatment of respiratory diseases
- Precision epigenetics silencing SMCHD1 to treat Prader Willi Syndrome
- Rethinking CD52 a therapy for autoimmune disease
- Targeting minor class splicing
- Partnerships and collaborations
- Royalties distribution
- Start-up companies
- Collaborators
- Publications repository
- Awards
- Discoveries
- Centenary 2015
- History
- Contact us
- Research
- Diseases
- Cancer
- Development and ageing
- Immune health and infection
- Research fields
- Research technologies
- People
- Anne-Laure Puaux
- Associate Profesor Ian Majewski
- Associate Professor Aaron Jex
- Associate Professor Alyssa Barry
- Associate Professor Andrew Webb
- Associate Professor Chris Tonkin
- Associate Professor Daniel Gray
- Associate Professor Diana Hansen
- Associate Professor Edwin Hawkins
- Associate Professor Emma Josefsson
- Associate Professor Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Associate Professor Grant Dewson
- Associate Professor Isabelle Lucet
- Associate Professor James Murphy
- Associate Professor James Vince
- Associate Professor Jason Tye-Din
- Associate Professor Jeanne Tie
- Associate Professor Jeff Babon
- Associate Professor Joan Heath
- Associate Professor Justin Boddey
- Associate Professor Kate Sutherland
- Associate Professor Leanne Robinson
- Associate Professor Marco Herold Marco Herold
- Associate Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat
- Associate Professor Matthew Ritchie
- Associate Professor Melissa Davis
- Associate Professor Misty Jenkins
- Associate Professor Nawaf Yassi
- Associate Professor Oliver Sieber
- Associate Professor Peter Czabotar
- Associate Professor Rachel Wong
- Associate Professor Rhys Allan
- Associate Professor Rosie Watson
- Associate Professor Ruth Kluck
- Associate Professor Sandra Nicholson
- Associate Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha
- Associate Professor Seth Masters
- Associate Professor Sumitra Ananda
- Associate Professor Tim Thomas
- Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham
- Associate Professor Wei Shi
- Catherine Parker
- Chela Niall
- Deborah Carr
- Dr Alisa Glukhova
- Dr Anna Coussens
- Dr Ashley Ng
- Dr Ben Tran
- Dr Bernhard Lechtenberg
- Dr Brad Sleebs
- Dr Drew Berry
- Dr Gemma Kelly
- Dr Gwo Yaw Ho
- Dr Hui-Li Wong
- Dr Jacqui Gulbis
- Dr Joanna Groom
- Dr John Wentworth
- Dr Kelly Rogers
- Dr Lucy Gately
- Dr Margaret Lee
- Dr Mary Ann Anderson
- Dr Maryam Rashidi
- Dr Matthew Call
- Dr Melissa Call
- Dr Philippe Bouillet
- Dr Rebecca Feltham
- Dr Samir Taoudi
- Dr Shalin Naik
- Dr Sheau Wen Lok
- Dr Simon Chatfield
- Dr Tracy Putoczki
- Guillaume Lessene
- Helene Martin
- Joh Kirby
- Kaye Wycherley
- Keely Bumsted O'Brien
- Mr Joel Chibert
- Mr Simon Monard
- Mr Steve Droste
- Ms Carolyn MacDonald
- Professor Alan Cowman
- Professor Andreas Strasser
- Professor Andrew Lew
- Professor Andrew Roberts
- Professor Anne Voss
- Professor Clare Scott
- Professor David Huang
- Professor David Komander
- Professor David Vaux
- Professor Doug Hilton
- Professor Gabrielle Belz
- Professor Geoff Lindeman
- Professor Gordon Smyth
- Professor Ian Wicks
- Professor Ivo Mueller
- Professor Jane Visvader
- Professor Jerry Adams
- Professor John Silke
- Professor Ken Shortman
- Professor Leonard C Harrison
- Professor Lynn Corcoran
- Professor Marc Pellegrini
- Professor Marnie Blewitt
- Professor Melanie Bahlo
- Professor Mike Lawrence
- Professor Nicos Nicola
- Professor Peter Colman
- Professor Peter Gibbs
- Professor Phil Hodgkin
- Professor Stephen Nutt
- Professor Suzanne Cory
- Professor Terry Speed
- Professor Tony Burgess
- Professor Tony Papenfuss
- Professor Warren Alexander
- Diseases
- Education
- PhD
- Honours
- Masters
- Undergraduate
- Student research projects
- A new regulator of stemness to create dendritic cell factories for immunotherapy
- Advanced methods for genomic rearrangement detection
- Control of cytokine signaling by SOCS1
- Defining the protein modifications associated with respiratory disease
- Delineating the pathways driving cancer development and therapy resistance
- Developing a new drug that targets plasmacytoid dendritic cells for the treatment of lupus
- Development and mechanism of action of novel antimalarials
- Development of a novel particle-based malaria vaccine
- Development of tau-specific therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies
- Discovering novel therapies for major human pathogens
- Dissecting host cell invasion by the diarrhoeal pathogen Cryptosporidium
- Epigenetic biomarkers of tuberculosis infection
- Essential role of glycobiology in malaria parasites
- Evolution of haematopoiesis in vertebrates
- Human lung protective immunity to tuberculosis
- Identifying novel treatment options for ovarian carcinosarcoma
- Interaction with Toxoplasma parasites and the brain
- Interactions between tumour cells and their microenvironment in non-small cell lung cancer
- Investigating the role of mutant p53 in cancer
- Microbiome strain-level analysis using long read sequencing
- Minimising rheumatic adverse events of checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy
- Modelling spatial and demographic heterogeneity of malaria transmission risk
- Naturally acquired immune response to malaria parasites
- Predicting the effect of non-coding structural variants in cancer
- Structural basis of catenin-independent Wnt signalling
- Structure and biology of proteins essential for Toxoplasma parasite invasion
- T lymphocytes: how memories are made
- TICKER: A cell history recorder for longitudinal patient monitoring
- Targeting host pathways to develop new broad-spectrum antiviral drugs
- Targeting post-translational modifications to disrupting the function of secreted proteins
- Targeting the epigenome to rewire pro-allergic T cells
- Targeting the immune microenvironment to treat KRAS-mutant adenocarcinoma
- The E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin and mitophagy in Parkinson’s disease
- The molecular controls on dendritic cell development
- Understanding malaria infection dynamics
- Understanding the genetics of neutrophil maturation
- Understanding the neuroimmune regulation of innate immunity
- Understanding the proteins that regulate programmed cell death at the molecular level
- Using cutting-edge single cell tools to understand the origins of cancer
- When healthy cells turn bad: how immune responses can transition to lymphoma
- School resources
- Frequently asked questions
- Student profiles
- Abebe Fola
- Andrew Baldi
- Anna Gabrielyan
- Bridget Dorizzi
- Casey Ah-Cann
- Catia Pierotti
- Emma Nolan
- Huon Wong
- Jing Deng
- Joy Liu
- Kaiseal Sarson-Lawrence
- Komal Patel
- Lilly Backshell
- Megan Kent
- Naomi Jones
- Rebecca Delconte
- Roberto Bonelli
- Rune Larsen
- Runyu Mao
- Sarah Garner
- Simona Seizova
- Wayne Cawthorne
- Wil Lehmann
- Miles Horton
- Alexandra Gurzau
- Student achievements
- Student association
- News
- Donate
- Online donation
- Ways to support
- Support outcomes
- Supporter stories
- Rotarians against breast cancer
- A partnership to improve treatments for cancer patients
- 20 years of cancer research support from the Helpman family
- A generous gift from a cancer survivor
- A gift to support excellence in Australian medical research
- An enduring friendship
- Anonymous donor helps bridge the 'valley of death'
- Renewed support for HIV eradication project
- Searching for solutions to muscular dystrophy
- Supporting research into better treatments for colon cancer
- Taking a single cell focus with the DROP-seq
- WEHI.TV
Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease that is caused by the immune system attacking joints and other tissues. It affects around 450,000 Australians, and the disease frequently first appears in 35-64 year olds.
Rheumatoid arthritis can have a major impact on people’s quality of life and can also reduce their life span. Our researchers are working to increase understanding of this disease so improved and better-targeted treatment can be delivered.
Our rheumatoid arthritis research
For more than 20 years our researchers have been advancing knowledge about rheumatoid arthritis. Their discoveries have led to current clinical trials that are testing better treatments for rheumatoid arthritis.
Our ongoing rheumatoid arthritis research aims to:
- Understand what goes wrong in the immune system to trigger and sustain inflammation.
- Design better ways to diagnose and treat rheumatoid arthritis.
Our rheumatoid arthritis research is integrated into WEHI’s broader research programs in immunology and inflammation.
What is rheumatoid arthritis?
The term ‘arthritis’ means pain, stiffness and other signs of inflammation in the joints. In rheumatoid arthritis, this inflammation is caused by the immune system attacking the body’s own joint tissues.
A major site of immune attack in rheumatoid arthritis is the small joints of the hands and feet, called ‘synovial joints’.
Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when immune cells are activated to recognise components of these synovial joints, causing inflammation of the joint lining, known as synovitis. Synovitis causes pain, swelling, warmth and reduced function of the involved joint.
Persistent joint inflammation eventually damages the joint, including cartilage, adjacent bone, and surrounding structures, such as tendons.
Rheumatoid arthritis can also lead to inflammation outside of the joints. This can damage blood vessels, eyes, nerves and lungs, amongst other organs. Rheumatoid arthritis can also exacerbate cardiovascular disease and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Around 2 in 100 Australians has rheumatoid arthritis. Despite major improvements in treatments in the past 20 years, rheumatoid arthritis remains a significant cause of disability and lost personal and economic productivity in Australia.
Rheumatoid arthritis risk factors
Rheumatoid arthritis can begin at any age, but most often appears in early adult life.
The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is not well understood, although there are a number of potential clues. A person’s chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis is increased if they:
- Have relatives with rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune diseases. Some rheumatoid arthritis risk genes have been discovered.
- Are female.
- Smoke.
How is rheumatoid arthritis treated?
There is currently no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, but early diagnosis and treatment can reduce the damage to joints and other tissues, and lessen disability.
Medications for rheumatoid arthritis currently include:
- Symptomatic treatments temporarily reduce joint inflammation and pain, such as painkillers (analgesics), corticosteroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Unfortunately these treatments do not slow the progression of the underlying disease.
- Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) do slow the progression of disease, as well as relieving symptoms. DMARDs work by decreasing the abnormal function of the immune system that drives rheumatoid arthritis.
Physiotherapy and occupational therapy are very helpful in people with rheumatoid arthritis for maintaining strength and physical activity and performing activities of daily living, including work. Psychological therapy can help negotiate the difficulties of a chronic, painful illness and the impact this has on the person and the person’s family.
Maintaining physical and psychological health is vital in rheumatoid arthritis. Good working relationships between the patient, the GP and specialists are important. Rheumatologists are expert in the management of this complex condition, including the role of new therapies. GPs can coordinate care and help navigate the health system.
The Australian Rheumatology Association and Arthritis Australia can provide more detailed information about managing rheumatoid arthritis.
Researchers:
Super Content:
We have discovered that cartilage plays an active role in the destruction and remodelling of joints seen in rheumatoid arthritis.
Our public forum explained how research into arthritis is leading to better treatments.
Researchers have discovered that a critical inflammatory protein involved in rheumatoid arthritis could also lead to inflammation and disease of the heart valves. The research could lead to improved treatments for rheumatoid arthritis.
Professor Ian Wicks has been at the forefront of new treatments for rheumatoid arthritis based on discoveries at the Institute. GM-CSF, which plays a critical role in rheumatoid arthritis, provides the key to new treatments.