- 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
- Collaborators
- Suppliers
- Publications repository
- Awards
- Discoveries
- Centenary 2015
- History
- Contact us
- Research
- Diseases
- Cancer
- Development and ageing
- Immune health and infection
- Research fields
- Research technologies
- Research centres
- People
- Alistair Brown
- Anne-Laure Puaux
- Assoc Prof Joanna Groom
- 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 Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Associate Professor Gemma Kelly
- Associate Professor Grant Dewson
- Associate Professor Isabelle Lucet
- Associate Professor James Vince
- Associate Professor Jason Tye-Din
- Associate Professor Jeanne Tie
- Associate Professor Jeff Babon
- Associate Professor Joan Heath
- Associate Professor John Wentworth
- Associate Professor Justin Boddey
- Associate Professor Kate Sutherland
- Associate Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat
- Associate Professor Matthew Ritchie
- Associate Professor Melissa Call
- 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 Seth Masters
- Associate Professor Sumitra Ananda
- Associate Professor Tim Thomas
- Associate Professor Tracy Putoczki
- Chela Niall
- Deborah Carr
- Dr Alisa Glukhova
- Dr Anna Coussens
- Dr Ashley Ng
- Dr Belinda Phipson
- Dr Ben Tran
- Dr Bernhard Lechtenberg
- Dr Brad Sleebs
- Dr Drew Berry
- Dr Gwo Yaw Ho
- Dr Hamish King
- Dr Hui-Li Wong
- Dr Jacqui Gulbis
- Dr Kelly Rogers
- Dr Lucy Gately
- Dr Margaret Lee
- Dr Mary Ann Anderson
- Dr Maryam Rashidi
- Dr Matthew Call
- Dr Nadia Davidson
- Dr Philippe Bouillet
- Dr Rebecca Feltham
- Dr Rory Bowden
- Dr Samir Taoudi
- Dr Shabih Shakeel
- Dr Shalin Naik
- Dr Sheau Wen Lok
- Dr Stephin Vervoort
- Dr Yunshun Chen
- Guillaume Lessene
- Helene Martin
- Joh Kirby
- Kaye Wycherley
- Keely Bumsted O'Brien
- Mr Mark Eaton
- 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 Geoff Lindeman
- Professor Gordon Smyth
- Professor Ian Wicks
- Professor Ivo Mueller
- Professor James McCarthy
- Professor James Murphy
- Professor Jane Visvader
- Professor Jerry Adams
- Professor John Silke
- Professor Ken Shortman
- Professor Leanne Robinson
- Professor Leonard C Harrison
- Professor Lynn Corcoran
- Professor Marc Pellegrini
- Professor Marco Herold
- Professor Marnie Blewitt
- Professor Melanie Bahlo
- Professor Mike Lawrence
- Professor Nicos Nicola
- Professor Peter Colman
- Professor Peter Gibbs
- Professor Phil Hodgkin
- Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha
- Professor Stephen Nutt
- Professor Suzanne Cory
- Professor Terry Speed
- Professor Tony Papenfuss
- Professor Wai-Hong Tham
- Professor Warren Alexander
- Diseases
- Education
- PhD
- Honours
- Masters
- Clinician-scientist training
- Undergraduate
- Student research projects
- A new regulator of 'stemness' to create dendritic cell factories for immunotherapy
- Advanced imaging interrogation of pathogen induced NETosis
- Cancer driver deserts
- Cryo-electron microscopy of Wnt signalling complexes
- Deciphering the heterogeneity of breast cancer at the epigenetic and genetic levels
- Developing drugs to block malaria transmission
- Developing new computational tools for CRISPR genomics to advance cancer research
- Developing novel antibody-based methods for regulating apoptotic cell death
- Discovering novel paradigms to cure viral and bacterial infections
- Discovery and targeting of novel regulators of transcription
- Dissecting host cell invasion by the diarrhoeal pathogen Cryptosporidium
- Do membrane forces govern assembly of the deadly apoptotic pore?
- Doublecortin-like kinases, drug targets in cancer and neurological disorders
- E3 ubiquitin ligases in neurodegeneration, autoinflammation and cancer
- Engineering improved CAR-T cell therapies
- Epigenetic biomarkers of tuberculosis infection
- Exploiting cell death pathways in regulatory T cells for cancer immunotherapy
- Finding treatments for chromatin disorders of intellectual disability
- Functional epigenomics in human B cells
- Genomic rearrangement detection with third generation sequencing technology
- How does DNA damage shape disease susceptibility over a lifetime?
- How does DNA hypermutation shape the development of solid tumours?
- How platelets prevent neonatal stroke
- Human lung protective immunity to tuberculosis
- Interaction with Toxoplasma parasites and the brain
- Interactions between tumour cells and their microenvironment in non-small cell lung cancer
- Investigating the role of dysregulated Tom40 in neurodegeneration
- Investigating the role of mutant p53 in cancer
- Lupus: proteasome inhibitors and inflammation
- Machine learning methods for somatic genome rearrangement detection
- Malaria: going bananas for sex
- Measurements of malaria parasite and erythrocyte membrane interactions using cutting-edge microscopy
- Measuring susceptibility of cancer cells to BH3-mimetics
- Minimising rheumatic adverse events of checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy
- Mutational signatures of structural variation
- Naturally acquired immune response to malaria parasites
- Predicting the effect of non-coding structural variants in cancer
- Revealing the epigenetic origins of immune disease
- Reversing antimalarial resistance in human malaria parasites
- Structural and functional analysis of DNA repair complexes
- Targeting human infective coronaviruses using alpaca antibodies
- Towards targeting altered glial biology in high-grade brain cancers
- Uncovering the real impact of persistent malaria infections
- Understanding Plasmodium falciparum invasion of red blood cells
- Understanding how malaria parasites sabotage acquisition of immunity
- Understanding malaria infection dynamics
- Understanding the mechanism of type I cytokine receptor activation
- Unveiling the heterogeneity of small cell lung cancer
- Using alpaca antibodies to understand malaria invasion and transmission
- Using combination immunotherapy to tackle heterogeneous brain tumours
- Using intravital microscopy for immunotherapy against brain tumours
- Using nanobodies to cross the blood brain barrier for drug delivery
- Using structural biology to understand programmed cell death
- 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
- Learning Hub
- 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.