• About
  • Research Focus

Professor Rischmueller is part of one of the three largest Rheumatology Clinical Trials Units in Australia, and has an active interest in research. She has been Principal Investigator on over fifty industry-sponsored multicentre clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, osteoarthritis, and back pain.


In 1993 Professor Rischmueller, a clinical rheumatologist, established a state wide research database and bio bank for primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS), as a model of systemic autoimmunity. This has formed the foundation for numerous publications characterising genetic risk factors, novel autoantibodies, and new clinical associations in these patients.


Qualifications



  • MB BS, University of Adelaide, 1985

  • FRACP, 1993


Positions held in the last 10 years


Director, Department of Rheumatology, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital


In her current laboratory-based research projects, Professor Rischmueller, in collaboration with Rheumatology Medical Scientist Sue Lester, is leading a program of investigation into how people have a tendency to genetically inherit autoimmune rheumatic diseases such as Sjogren’s syndrome, lupus, scleroderma and rheumatoid arthritis, and how genes affect the pattern and severity of these diseases in patients. Other research interests include autoantibodies: their genetic and clinical associations and inflammatory mechanisms