Professor Kulveer Mankia

Profile

I qualified in medicine from Oxford with first class honours and undertook general medical training at the Oxford University Hospitals where I was NIHR academic clinical fellow. After specialty training in rheumatology at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford, I was awarded the Doris Overend Throup Scholarship, which brought me to Leeds. My doctoral research was focused on characterising individuals at risk of developing RA including palindromic rheumatism. I continued my research on the transition from autoimmunity to arthritis as NIHR academic clinical lecturer and was appointed Clinical Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist in 2019. I was promoted to Full Professor (Chair) in Clinical and Translational Rheumatology in 2025.

Research interests

I am interested in the transition from autoimmunity to clinically established rheumatoid arthritis. This includes investigations into clinical and imaging risk stratification and also the immunobiology of this transition. I am also interested in palindromic rheumatism and immune checkpoint inhibitor related arthritis in cancer patients.

My research group conducts clinical and imaging research, including use of whole body multi-joint MRI. We conduct multiple clinical trials in early and established rheumatoid arthritis. We also perform translational research including deep sequencing and proteomics. I have designed and led clinical trials on rheumatoid arthritis interception and early therapy.

I oversee the Leeds CCP research cohort, a prospective study of ~1000 anti-CCP+ individuals with arthralgia who are at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. This is one of the largest cohorts of its kind worldwide. I also lead the Leeds palindromic rheumatism and immune checkpoint arthritis cohorts; both are the largest within the UK and among the largest worldwide.

I co-chair the ACR/EULAR risk stratification task force for rheumatoid arthritis (population based approaches) and co-chair the OMERACT working group on arthritis prevention. I also co-lead the NIHR TRC workstream on studies for individuals at risk of arthritis.

Co-investigator (Co-I)

• SPIRITT Scintigraphy for Prediction In Rheumatoid Intentional Therapy Tapering

Qualifications

• BMBCh
• MA (Oxon)
• DM
• FRCP
• PGDip Health Res

Professional memberships

• RCP
• BSR
• MPS

Student education

I teach undergraduate medical students on the rheumatology curriculum. I am member of the question writing group for MRCP rheumatology (part 2).

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine
• Inflammatory Musculoskeletal
• Biomedical Imaging Science