Professor Caroline Gordon MA, MD, FRCP

• Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians 2000 
• MD from University of London 1994 (Research on Cytokines in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus)
• ECFMG from USA 1989
• Membership of the Royal College of Physicians 1984
• MA University of Cambridge 1982
• MB BS London Hospital Medical College1981 (Distinction in Pathology)
• BA University of Cambridge (First Class degree) Part 2: Pathology: Immunology and Virology

Caroline Gordon undertook pre-clinical medical studies at King’s College Cambridge and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1978. She studied clinical medicine at the London Hospital Medical College and graduated from the University of London in 1981. After training in internal medicine in Brighton and Bristol from 1982 to 1984, she was awarded a Harkness Fellowship by the Commonwealth Fund of New York and spent 2 years in her research fellowship in immunology and arthritis at the University of California, San Francisco. She returned to the UK having been appointed a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Birmingham in 1989 and she set up the Birmingham Lupus Clinics. She was awarded an MD from the University of London for her research on cytokines in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in 1994. She was appointed Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Rheumatology in 1996, was promoted to Reader in 2003 and Professor of Rheumatology in 2007. The title of Emeritus Professor was conferred on her in 2018.

In 2002 she was awarded the Edmund L. Dubois, MD, Memorial Award for research in to lupus by the American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation. Given her experience in undertaking an epidemiological survey of lupus using multiple methods of case ascertainment she has been a consultant to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) SLE registries in USA since their inception in 2004. The Birmingham lupus clinics were awarded the title of LUPUS UK Centre of Excellence in 2005, the first lupus centre in the UK to receive this award and it has been reconfirmed at bi-annual review since. In 2009 she was appointed advisory expert to the ESF Research Networking Programme: The Identification of Novel Genes and Biomarkers for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (BIOLUPUS). In 2011 she was invited as a visiting Professor to the South African Rheumatology Association and in 2013 she was invited to give the prestigious Heberden Round and received the Heberden Medal at the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) Annual Meeting.

Much of her research work has focussed on the epidemiology, aetiopathogenesis and treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus. She is well-known for work on disease assessment methodology for outcome studies and clinical trials, particularly the development of the BILAG disease activity index and the development of the SLICC/ACR damage index and frailty index. She has been involved in the assessment of quality of life in lupus patients, in particular using the SF-36 and the LupusQoL surveys. , She has also been interested in the genetic susceptibility to SLE and the role of ethnicity in predicting disease susceptibility and long-term outcome. The Birmingham lupus cohort is a valuable resource for studying disease flare, accumulation of damage and predictors of response to treatment and risk of cancer and death. She has been Co-Chair of the EULAR SLE Task Force since 2005 and she led the EULAR SLE Task Force on points to consider for conducting clinical trials. She was an active member of the BSR Guidelines Working Group on Prescribing Drugs in Pregnancy and Breast-feeding and has led the BSR Guidelines Working Group on the Management of SLE. She advises the pharmaceutical industry on organising and analysing clinical trials, and has been particularly involved in trials of epratuzumab and atacicept in the past.

She is currently a co-investigator and steering committee member for the MRC Strategic Medicine project “Masterplans”, a collaboration between academic centres in UK and industrial partners and for the Versus Arthritis funded Beat-lupus trial (belimumab after rituximab). Other on-going research includes mixed methods studies related to diagnostic, symptom and support experiences of patients with lupus and related systemic autoimmune diseases, the impact of Covid-19 and employment issues for patients with lupus.

• Taught Medicine and Surgery MBChB
  • Until 2013 she was lead for the musculo-skeletal curriculum group responsible for organising the teaching and assessment of musculo-skeletal medicine in the 3rd, 4th & 5th years and vertical integration.
  • Caroline was the clinical co-ordinator for the muscles, joints and movement module in year 1 and taught musculoskeletal assessment and management in year 3 and year 4.
• BMedSci
  • Contributed lectures and examination questions
• MSc Rheumatology
  • Contributed lectures and examination questions

Previous postgradute teaching and supervision

• Academic FY1 and FY2 doctors
• Academic Clinical Fellow and Clinical Research Fellows
  • Educational supervisor (M Res, MD, PhD programmes)
• Specialist Registrars
  • Lectures to those training in Rheumatology, Immunology, General Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and A&E in the Midlands; and supervises rheumatology registrars in clinical and research work at City hospital, Birmingham
• MSc in Rheumatology
  • Local lecturer and previously external lecturer at University of London (Guys’ Hospital)

Research themes

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Pregnancy and the Rheumatic Diseases, Methodology for Clinical Trials in Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases

Research activity

Her research programme focuses on systemic lupus erythematosus but she has also contributed to research in to inflammatory arthritis, vasculitis, Sjogren’s syndrome and anti-phospholipid syndrome. Caroline Gordon is a member of the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group (BILAG), the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC), was previously Co-Chair of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Task Force for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and has been a member of several American College of Rheumatology and Lupus Foundation of America committees for lupus research. In the past she she was the lupus lead on the Arthritic Research UK (now Versus Arthritis) systemic autoimmune disease clinical study group.

Much of her work has focused on disease assessment for clinical trials and outcome studies, particularly the development of the BILAG disease activity index and the epidemiology of lupus. She has also been involved in the development of the SLICC/ACR damage index and frailty index, and has been involved in the assessment of quality of life in lupus patients using the SF-36 and the Lupus QoL surveys. Caroline Gordon has a longstanding interest in improving the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and has been involved in organising several investigator led trials. More recently she has been involved in trials of atacicept and epratuzumab for lupus. She has led the initiative producing EULAR points to consider for conducting clinical trials in SLE and advises the pharmaceutical industry on organising and analysing clinical trials and she is a consultant to the Centre for Disease Control on epidemiological studies of lupus in the USA. She is interested in clinical and laboratory markers of disease flare, predictors of response to treatment and outcome of children born to mothers with lupus, the genetic susceptibility to lupus, the importance of ethnicity in predicting disease susceptibility and long-term outcome and improving quality of life for lupus patients including reducing diagnostic uncertainty and employment issues.

She is currently a co-investigator and steering committee member for the MRC Strategic Medicine project “Masterplans”, a collaboration between academic centres in UK and industrial partners, and for the Versus Arthritis funded Beat-lupus trial (belimumab or placebo after rituximab).

American College of Rheumatology (ACR)

• 1997-1998 - Member of the ACR committee for the assessment of neuro-psychiatric disease in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
• 1998-2003 - Lupus Study Group member
• 2002-2003 - Member of the ACR committee for the development of SLE response criteria for clinical trials
• 2002-2005 - Co-chair/chair ACR Annual Meeting SLE Abstract selection committee
• 2003-2006 - Member of the ACR Renal Lupus Response Criteria Workgroup

Arthritis Research UK (Arthritis Research Campaign)

• 2007-2010 - Lead for lupus research in the Autoimmune Rheumatic Disorders Clinical Study Group

British Isles Lupus Assessment Group (BILAG)

• 1991-current - Member
• 2003-2019 - Deputy Chair

British Society for Rheumatology

• 1996-2002 - Convenor (chair) for the BSR Lupus Special Interest Group
• 1996-2002 - Convenor (chair) for the BSR Lupus Special Interest Group
• 1998-2001 - Research and Training Committee
• 2000-2005 - BSR/British Renal Ass. Lupus Nephritis Study Group
• 2011-2015 – Member of the BSR Guidelines Working Group on Prescribing Drugs in Pregnancy and Breast-feeding.
• 2011-2016 – Convenor of the BSR Guidelines Working Group on Management of SLE.

European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR)

• 2003-2006 - Scientific Committee member
• 2005-2006 - Chair of the Abstract Selection Committee
• 2005-2008 - Chair for SLE Task Force on “Recommendations for clinical end-points and conducting trials in SLE”
• 2005-2015 - Co-Chair for the SLE Task Force on Recommendations for management of SLE” and for “the management of neuropsychiatric SLE” and for “the management of lupus nephritis”

Lupus Nephritis Terminology Advisory Group

• 2006-2008 - Co-Chair for UK and European Consensus groups (first author)

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

• 2007-2012 - Lead for the Birmingham and Black Country (BBC) Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN) Immunology and Inflammation Speciality Group
• 2008-2012 - Chair of the National Comprehensive Clinical Research Network (CCRN) Immunology and Inflammation Specialty Group
• 2009-2011 - Member of the UKCRN Experimental Medicine Steering Group

Royal College of Physicians

• 2008-2009 - Chair for the SLE group revising Map of Medicine Clinical Pathways

Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics

• 1992-1996 - Member
• 1997-2005 - Member of executive committee (agenda organiser)
• 2006-current - Member