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 began his Rheumatology fellowship at UCSD in 1983. In 1988, he joined the faculty at UCSD School of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Medicine. Four years later, Dr. Firestein was hired by Gensia, Inc. as 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 named Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology. In 2008, Dr. Firestein was named Dean of Translational Research at UCSD.
Dr. Firestein’s research interest has focused on the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and mechanisms of inflammation. He was among the first to map the synovial cytokine profile of RA and demonstrate the dominance of macrophage and fibroblast products. These studies contributed to the development of the highly effective anti-TNF 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. His laboratory has also worked extensively on signal transduction pathways as potential therapeutic targets. His studies identifying the key signaling molecules regulating synovial inflammation served as pivotal proof of concept studies for targets like IKKß and JNK. In addition, he has directed a number of innovative clinical studies for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and scleroderma, and autoinflammatory syndromes with a focus on developing novel biomarker studies. In 1998, Dr. Firestein received the prestigious Carol-Nachman Prize, which is an international award given for outstanding contributions to rheumatology research. In 2006, he received the Lee C. Howley Sr Prize for Arthritis Research by the Arthritis Foundation. He has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.
Dr. Firestein has written over 220 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. Dr. Firestein founded the UCSD Center for Innovative Therapy to promote translational research in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and in 2003 was named the founding Director of the UCSD Clinical Investigation Institute. He also served as a chairman of the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee for two years
