Lisa Rider, M.D.

Lisa G. Rider, M.D., is Head of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group and a Senior Clinician, specializing in pediatric rheumatology. The mission of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group is to understand the mechanisms for the development of autoimmune diseases so that group members can extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability. The group conducts a broad program of clinical, translational, and basic investigations in the area of adult and pediatric autoimmune diseases. Dr. Rider leads several research studies and pediatric enrollments in the group.

The group uses multidisciplinary approaches to understand the roles of genetic and environmental risk factors for these diseases. Group members are currently focusing investigations on the Systemic Rheumatic Diseases. The diseases Dr. Rider is most involved with in the group’s research studies include the Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies (Dermatomyositis, Polymyositis, Inclusion Body Myositis, and related Myositis Syndromes). These illnesses are heterogeneous groups of disorders defined by chronic muscle inflammation and are prototypic autoimmune diseases.

The group supports studies at the NIH Clinical Center, which include epidemiologic surveys, molecular genetic studies, clinical investigations in disease pathogenesis, and the development of tools for the assessment of innovative therapies.

Rider oversees investigators and trainees in the group and leads national and international consortia that evaluate and conduct a wide range of basic and clinical studies on juvenile and adult myositis. She obtained her M.D. at the Duke University School of Medicine, completed her pediatrics training at Seattle Children’s Hospital of University of Washington, and her fellowship in pediatric rheumatology at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA, Children’s National Medical Center, and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.

Rider has focused much of her work on autoimmune muscle diseases in children and has received several awards of distinction. She has authored or co-authored nearly 200 research publications, reviews, books, and book chapters. She also co-established and is co-chair of the International Myositis Assessment and Clinical Studies Group (IMACS) and the Childhood Myositis Heterogeneity Study Group. Rider is vice chair of the Myositis Genetics Consortium (MYOGEN), which is leading studies to define new genetic risk and protective factors for myositis.