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Professor Costantino Pitzalis

Costantino

Versus Arthritis Professor of Rheumatology, Deputy Director of the William Harvey Research Institute, and Head of Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology

Centre: Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology

Email: y.c.j.wong@qmul.ac.uk
X: @EMR_QMUL

Profile

ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1326-5051

Costantino Pitzalis is Versus Arthritis Professor of Rheumatology at the William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Queen Mary University of London.

He is Deputy Director of the William Harvey Research Institute and Head of the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology (EULAR Centre of Excellence in Rheumatology 2023-28), leading a multidisciplinary research team of Clinicians, Scientists, Biostatisticians, Bioinformaticians, Clinical Trial Managers and administrative support staff who strive to deliver best care to patients with Rheumatic Diseases.

Costantino also leads the Musculoskeletal Theme of the NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre 2022-27 which provides the opportunity to tackle health inequalities and deliver pioneering, innovative healthcare to people of east London and beyond.

His research interests focus on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammation and autoimmunity in chronic rheumatic conditions, particularly rheumatoid arthritis (RA). He has published over 300 highly cited peer-reviewed papers in the field of inflammation, immunity, and arthritis.

He was the Chief Investigator of the first 2 stratified, biopsy-driven, multicentre, randomised clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) which were funded by the NIHR and MRC/VA (R4RA and STRAP). These RCTs are the first worldwide biopsy-driven trials that span the disease course from early to late RA and are synchronised for drug exposure. 

His clinical interests encompass general rheumatology with a focus on immune/inflammatory rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis as well as other autoimmune rheumatic conditions (CTDs & Sjogren’s Syndrome) and osteoarthritis.

Contact

Email: y.c.j.wong@qmuk.ac.uk (Executive Assistant: Ms Jojo Wong)

Research

Group members
https://www.qmul.ac.uk/whri/emr/our-team/

The Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology’s mission is to better understand disease pathogenesis in order to develop novel therapeutics and maximise therapeutic utility of existing therapies. The ultimate goal is to find a cure for rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.

To achieve this goal the Centre focuses on a strong basic science programme in the field of immunology & inflammation linked to a clinical translational programme in the following 4 research areas:

  1. Breach of Tolerance & Autoimmunity
    Investigating development of T/B cell autoimmunity in secondary- vs tertiary-lymphoid-structures and in early vs established RA (Bombardieri / Pitzalis); b) Role of FDCs and RASF in auto-antigen retention and breach of B cell tolerance (ElShikh / Pitzalis) and c) analysis of the antigenic specificities of lesional T and B cells (Bombardieri / Pitzalis).

  2. Development and resolution of inflammation & Mechanisms of Tissue Damage and Repair
    Mechanisms of T and B cell recruitment and retention using in vivo models (eg. RA/SCID/)(Bombardieri/Pitzalis); b) Resolution-of-inflammation through endogenous anti-inflammatory pathway. This area is investigated/developed through a long-standing collaboration with Prof Perretti and c) Mechanisms of Tissue Damage and Repair with particular emphasis on cartilage homeostasis. This research area is particular competence of Professor Dell’Accio.

  3. Developing new therapies through understanding of pathogenesis
    The Centre is actively involved in the development of novel therapeutics both through its own drug development programme (e.g. developing single chain (sc)Fv antibodies, identified by phage display technology, to specifically target joint tissues) and, in collaboration with industry, via the progression of the pharma pipeline. The Centre has been awarded an ARUK Experimental Arthritis Treatment Centres and is part of the National Institute for Health Research Translational Research Partnership.

  4. Patients stratification to understand pathogenesis of disease evolution and response to therapy
    The Centre builds on an existing large biomarker discovery and clinical trial programme to identify specific synovial tissue-driven bio-variables and blood correlates of clinical evolution and response to therapy. These include MRC/PEAC, MRC/ABPI and NIHR-EME initiatives. In addition, the ability of targeted biologics (TNF/IL6R/B-cell blockade) to modulate the panoply of RA-associated immune abnormalities will be utilised to better understand and dissect the complex immunological networks in the disease tissue in patients with RA.

More info: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/whri/emr/research-themes/

Publications

  • Maetzler W, Avey S, Pilotto A et al. (2026). IDEA-FAST clinical study protocol: Identifying digital end-points of fatigue, sleep quality and daytime sleepiness in N = 2000. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Anderle K, Sieghart D, Durechova M et al. (publicationYear). An international, multicentre, interventional, randomised, assessor-blinded trial to MAXimise the METHotrexate therapy potential in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (MethMax trial): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Sciacca E, Wang SS, Pitzalis C et al. (2026). multiDEGGs: Single or Multiomic Differential Network Analysis for Biomarker Discovery and Feature Engineering for Predictive Modeling. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Congia M, Marini S, Nerviani A et al. (publicationYear). Ultrasound-Guided Synovial Biopsy Can Be Effectively and Safely Performed in Different Clinical Settings Favouring a Widespread Application of Precision Medicine in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Post-hoc Analysis of Three Clinical Trials. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Stadler M, Rivellese F, Plant D et al. (2026). Inflammation response criteria for rheumatoid arthritis based on the two-component disease activity score. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Nyi TH, Rivellese F, Pitzalis C et al. (2026). Unravelling early myocardial changes in rheumatoid arthritis by cardiovascular magnetic resonance: insights from the UK biobank. nameOfConference


  • Bhamidipati K, McIntyre ABR, Kazerounian S et al. (2026). Spatial patterning of fibroblast TGFβ signaling underlies treatment resistance in rheumatoid arthritis. nameOfConference


  • Chang S, Rivellese F, Ide Z et al. (2025). EE386 Economic Evaluation of Synovial Biopsy-Guided Treatment Strategy After TNF-Alpha Inhibitor Failure in Rheumatoid Arthritis. nameOfConference


  • La Rosa FG, Moreland LWK, Nibali L et al. (2025). Pathotype-Specific Expression of Granzyme-Perforin Pathway Genes and their Association with Clinical Disease Activity in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis and in a Randomized Clinical Trial 2923. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Boutet M-A, Mattiola I, Silva-Gomes R et al. (2025). Synovial MS4A4A correlates with inflammation and counteracts response to corticosteroids in arthritis. nameOfConference


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Sponsors

Collaborators

Internal

External

  • Professor Anne Barton
  • Professor Simon Jones
  • Professor Chris Buckley
  • Professor Iain McInnes
  • Professor Peter Taylor
  • Professor Marta Alarcón Riquelme
  • Professor Maya Buch
  • Dr Juan Cañete
  • Professor Eduardo Collantes
  • Professor Patrick Durez
  • Professor Alberto Cauli
  • Professor Ronald Van Vollenhoven
  • Professor João E Fonseca
  • Professor Pier Paolo Sainaghi

News

Disclosures

  • AbbVie: Consultant/Speaker/Contract Research
  • Janssen: Consultant/Speaker/Contract Research
  • Kinikska: Consultant
  • Norvartis: Contract Research
  • Sanofi: Contract Research
  • Exagen: Consultant
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