Sharma Named Solovy-Arthritis Research Society Professor

CHICAGO --- Leena Sharma, professor rheumatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, has been appointed a Solovy-Arthritis Research Society Research Professor.

Her major area of research interest is the identification of risk factors for disease progression, function decline and disability in persons with knee osteoarthritis.

Sharma is principal investigator on four National Institutes of Health (NIH) RO1 grants, project principal investigator on the NIH-funded Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center in Rheumatology and co-investigator on other NIH-funded research projects. She is a member of the Neurological, Aging and Musculoskeletal Epidemiology Study Section at NIH.

In 2003 the Arthritis Foundation cited Sharma's work as one of the top 10 arthritis research advances.

Sharma, who joined the Northwestern faculty in 1989, serves on the board of directors for the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) and was the scientific program chair of the OARSI international congress in 2004. She has served on several committees for the American College of Rheumatology.

She has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine, Arthritis and Rheumatism, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and other journals. She is on the editorial board of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage and serves as manuscript reviewer for numerous journals.