Professor Karim Raza BA, BMBCh, FRCP, PhD

Karim Raza

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Professor of Rheumatology supported by Versus Arthritis

Contact details

Telephone
+44 121 3713242
Email
k.raza@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Birmingham
B15 2WB

Karim Raza is Professor of Rheumatology within the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham where he is Head of the Rheumatology Research Group.

Professor Raza has an active NHS clinical practice, working as an Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust with a specialist interest in inflammatory arthritis.

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, and is a Theme Lead within the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre.

Qualifications

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

Teaching

  • Co-lead for clinical Rheumatology teaching for Year 4 medical students at the University of Birmingham
  • At a postgraduate level, he teaches on several postgraduate courses and supervises doctors on the Academic Clinical Training program.

Postgraduate supervision

Research

Professor Raza leads the Birmingham Early Arthritis Cohort

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.

Patient and Public involvement in research

Patients and members of the public play an important role in the development, delivery and dissemination of Professor Raza’s research, enhancing its relevance and impact. Professor Raza has been instrumental in establishing the Birmingham Rheumatology Research Patient Partnership (R2P2) which has 40 active members and provides crucial input into clinical and translational studies across the Rheumatology Research Group.

Other activities

Positions of responsibility include

  1. Director of Research and Development at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (2014-2018).
  2. Co-chair of the EULAR Study Group on Risk Factors for Rheumatoid Arthritis rheumatoid arthritis (2011-2018).
  3. Co-lead for Outputs for Unit of Assessment 1 for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 at the University of Birmingham.

Committee membership

  1. Member of the Arthritis Research UK Clinical Studies Central Progress Review Committee (2009- 2013) and of the Arthritis Research UK Research sub-committee (2013-2017).
  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’ (2015-16).
    2. ‘EULAR classification criteria for arthralgia that is clinically suspect for progression to rheumatoid arthritis’ (2015-16).
    3. ‘Update of the 2007 EULAR recommendations for the management of early arthritis’ (2015-16).
    4. EULAR Points to Consider for conducting clinical trials in individuals at-risk of rheumatoid arthritis (current).
    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)
  3. Member of the British Society for Rheumatology’s Research Committee (2014-2018). 

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, 'Notch signalling drives synovial fibroblast identity and arthritis pathology', Nature, vol. 582, no. 7811, pp. 259–264. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2222-z

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 impact of autoantibodies against citrullinated, carbamylated, and acetylated peptides on radiographic progression in patients with new-onset rheumatoid arthritis: an observational cohort study', The Lancet Rheumatology, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. e284-e293. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(20)30381-7

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, '11β-HSD1 Plays a critical role in trabecular bone loss associated with systemic glucocorticoid therapy', Arthritis Research & Therapy, vol. 21, no. 1, 188. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-019-1972-1

Filer, A, Ward, LSC, Kemble, S, Davies, C, Munir, H, Rogers, R, Raza, K, Buckley, C, Nash, G & McGettrick, H 2017, 'Identification of a transitional fibroblast functional phenotype in very early rheumatoid arthritis', Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, vol. 76, no. 12, pp. 2105-2112. https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2017-211286

Juarez, M, Bang, H, Hammar, F, Reimer, U, Dyke, B, Sahbudin, I, Buckley, C, Fisher, B, Filer, A & Raza, K 2016, 'Identification of novel antiacetylated vimentin antibodies in patients with early inflammatory arthritis', Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, vol. 75, no. 6, pp. 1099-1107. https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-206785

Recent publications

Article

Rayner, F, Anderson, AE, Baker, KF, Buckley, C, Dyke, B, Fenton, S, Filer, A, Goodyear, CS, Hilkens, C, Hiu, S, Kerrigan, S, Kurowska-Stolarska, M, Matthews, FE, McInnes, IB, Ng, W-F, Pratt, AG, Prichard, J, Raza, K, Siebert, S, Stocken, D, Teare, MD, Young, S & Isaacs, JD 2021, 'BIOlogical Factors that Limit sustAined Remission in rhEumatoid arthritis (the BIO-FLARE study): protocol for a non-randomised longitudinal cohort study', BMC Rheumatology. <https://bmcrheumatol.biomedcentral.com/>

Bywall, K, Veldwijk, J, Hansson, M, baecklund, E, Raza, K, Falahee, M & Kihlbom, U 2021, 'Does being exposed to an educational tool influence patient preferences? The influence of an educational tool on patient preferences assessed by a discrete choice experiment.', Patient Education and Counseling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2021.03.013

Webster, J, Sagmeister, M, Fenton, C, Seabright, A, Lai, Y-C, Jones, S, Filer, A, Cooper, MS, Lavery, G, Raza, K, Langen, R & Hardy, R 2021, 'Global deletion of 11β-HSD1 prevents muscle wasting associated with glucocorticoid therapy in polyarthritis', International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Mirza, M, Siebert, S, Pratt, AG, Insch, E, McIntosh, F, Paton, J, Wright, C, Buckley, C, Isaacs, J, McInnes, IB, Raza, K & Falahee, M 2021, 'Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on recruitment to clinical research studies in rheumatology', Musculoskeletal care. https://doi.org/10.1002/msc.1561

Fenton, C, Martin, C, Jones, R, Croft, A, Campos, J, Naylor, A, Taylor, A, Chimen, M, Cooper, M, Lavery, G, Raza, K & Hardy, R 2021, 'Local steroid activation is a critical mediator of the anti-inflammatory actions of therapeutic glucocorticoids', Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 250-260. https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-218493

Wang, Y, Khan, A, Antonopoulos, A, Bouché, L, Buckley, CD, Filer, A, Raza, K, Li, K-P, Tolusso, B, Gremese, E, Kurowska-Stolarska, M, Alivernini, S, Dell, A, Haslam, SM & Pineda, MA 2021, 'Loss of α2-6 sialylation promotes the transformation of synovial fibroblasts into a pro-inflammatory phenotype in arthritis', Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 2343. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22365-z

Chandan, J, Zemedikun, D, Thayakaran, R, Byrne, N, Dhalla , S, Acosta-Mena , D, Gokhale, K, Thomas, T, Sainsbury, C, Subramanian, A, Cooper, J, Anand, A, Okoth, K, Wang, J, Adderley, N, Taverner, T, Denniston, A, Lord, J, Thomas, GN, Buckley, C, Raza, K, Bhala, N, Nirantharakumar, K & Haroon, S 2021, 'Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and susceptibility to COVID‐19', Arthritis and Rheumatology, vol. 73, no. 5, pp. 731-739. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41593

Chandan, J, Keerthy, D, Gokhale, KM, Bradbury-Jones, C, Raza, K, Bandyopadhyay, S, Taylor, J & Nirantharakumar, K 2021, 'The association between exposure to domestic abuse in women and the development of syndromes indicating central nervous system sensitization: a retrospective cohort study using UK primary care records', European Journal of Pain. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1750

Friščić, J, Böttcher, M, Reinwald, C, Bruns, H, Writh, B, Popp, S-J, Walker, KI, Ackermann, JA, Chen, X, Turner, J, Zhu, H, Seyler, L, Euler, M, Kirchner, P, Krüger, R, Ekici, AB, Major, T, Aust, O, Weidner, D, Fischer, A, Andes, FT, Stanojevic, Z, Trajkovic, V, Hermann, M, Korb-Pap, A, Wank, I, Hess, A, Winter, J, Wixler, V, Distler, J, Steiner, G, Kiener, HP, Frey, B, Kling, L, Raza, K, Frey, S, Kleyer, A, Bäuerle, T, Grüneboom, A, Steffen, U, Krönke, G, Croft, A, Filer, A, Köhl, J, Klein, K, Buckley, CD, Schett, G, Mougiakakos, D & Hoffmann, MH 2021, 'The complement system drives local inflammatory tissue priming by metabolic reprogramming of articular fibroblasts', Immunity, vol. 2021, no. 00, pp. 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2021.03.003

Falahee, M, Simons, G, DiSantostefano, R, valor-mendez, L, Radawski, C, Englbrecht, M, Bywall, K, Tcherny-Lessenot, S, Kihlbom, U, Hauber, B, Veldwijk, J & Raza, K 2021, 'Treatment preferences for preventive interventions for rheumatoid arthritis: protocol of a mixed methods case study for the innovative medicines initiative PREFER project', BMJ open, vol. 11, no. 4, e045851. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045851

Zemedikun, DT, Gokhale, K, Chandan, JS, Copper, J, Lord, JM, Filer, A, Falahee, M, Nirantharakumar, K & Raza, K 2021, 'Type 2 diabetes mellitus, glycaemic control, associated therapies and risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a retrospective cohort study', Rheumatology (Oxford, England). https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab148

Nikiphorou, E, de Lusignan, S, Khavandi, K, Bedarida, G, Buckley, C, Galloway, J & Raza, K 2020, 'Cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes in early rheumatoid arthritis: a population-based study', Heart, vol. 106, no. 20, pp. 1566–1572. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-316193

Birch, B, Simons, G, Buckley, C, Raza, K & Falahee, M 2020, 'Development and formative evaluation of patient research partner involvement in a multi-disciplinary European translational research project', Research Involvement and Engagement, vol. 6, 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-020-0178-7

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Schaper, M, Raz, A, Falahee, M, Raza, K, Timmermans, D, Garcia Gonzalez, E, Schicktanz, S & Wöhlke, S 2020, Direct to consumer personal genomic testing and trust: A comparative focus group study of lay perspectives in Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and the UK. in M Hansson, U Kihlbom & S Schicktanz (eds), Ethical, Social and Psychological Impacts of Genomic Risk Communication. Routledge, Taylor & Francis, London. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341038

Editorial

Falahee, M & Raza, K 2021, 'Rheumatoid arthritis prevention: any takers?', RMD Open, vol. 7, no. 1, e001633. https://doi.org/10.1136/rmdopen-2021-001633

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Culture and collections

Schools, institutes and departments

Services and facilities