Gary S. Firestein, MD

Dr. Gary S. Firestein received his A.B. degree summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1976 and subsequently received his M.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1980. After training in internal medicine at UCLA, he trained in rheumatology fellowship at UC San Diego from 1983 to 1986. In 1988, he joined the faculty at UCSD School of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Medicine.

Four years later, Dr. Firestein was recruited by Gensia, Inc., to be Director of Immunology where he supervised drug discovery efforts focusing on the potential role of purines in inflammation. In 1996, he returned to UCSD and, in 1998 was promoted to Professor of Medicine. From 1998 to 2010, he served as Chief of the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology. In 2008 and 2010, Dr. Firestein was named Dean of Translational Medicine at UCSD and Associate Vice Chancellor of Translational Medicine, respectively. He is currently the Director of the Clinical and Translational Research Institute at UC San Diego.

Dr. Firestein’s research interest has focused on the pathogenesis and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. He was among the first to map the synovial cytokine profile of RA and demonstrate the dominance of macrophage and fibroblast products. These studies played a pivotal role in the development of the highly effective anti-TNF and other anti-cytokine approaches to RA. Dr. Firestein has also studied the role of aggressive synoviocyte behavior in RA as a mechanism of joint destruction and implicated tumor suppressor genes mutations in the pathogenesis of disease. Over the last decade, his laboratory has worked extensively on signal transduction pathways as potential therapeutic targets. These studies identified key signaling molecules regulating synovial inflammation and paved the way to several effective oral small molecule inhibitors that are currently in late phase clinical development for RA. In addition, he directed a number of innovative clinical studies for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, and autoinflammatory syndromes with a focus on developing novel biomarker endpoints.

In 1998, Dr. Firestein received the prestigious Carol-Nachman Prize, an international award given for outstanding contributions to rheumatology research. In 2006 and 2009, he received the Arthritis Foundation Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Research and the American College of Rheumatology Distinguished Investigator Award, respectively. Dr. Firestein received the Arthritis Foundation’s Jane Wyman Humanitarian Award in 2010 for his contributions to rheumatology. He has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.

Dr. Firestein has written over 250 articles and chapters and has edited or written several books. He served as the deputy editor of Arthritis & Rheumatism and is currently the editor-in-chief of the Kelley Textbook of Rheumatology. He was chairperson of the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee, co-chairperson of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Abstract Selection Committee and has served on the ACR Committee on Research and the Arthritis Foundation Research Committee. He currently is a member of the Board of Directors of the ACR Research and Education Foundation and the Veteran’s Medical Research Foundation.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Firestein is an avid surfer and travels the world in search of the perfect wave. Joined by his wife, Linda, and their children David and Cathy, the family escapes the frigid San Diego climate to enjoy the warm waters in Costa Rica.