Continuing EMEUNET Sub-Committee Members 2025-2026

Rym is a specialty doctor who graduated in Tunis, Tunisia, focusing on autoimmune rheumatic diseases and vasculitis.  She is currently a clinical research fellow and a PhD student in the department of Ageing, Rheumatology and Regenerative Medicine at University College London and an honorary clinical fellow in the Rheumatology department at University College London Hospital.

Her research interests are mainly focused on systemic lupus erythematosus, trying to identify predictive markers of prolonged remission. She is also contributing to the ongoing lupus research trials in the department. Rym is the past president of the Tunisian Association of Young Internists and representative of Tunisia in the European Young Internists board.

Rym is a member of the EMEUNET Country Liaison Sub-Committee

Lisa is a physician and clinical scientist at the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Inselspital, University Hospital, in Bern, Switzerland. Her research interests focus on vasculitis, specifically giant cell arteritis, and Sjögren’s disease. She conducted the GUSTO trial, a proof-of-concept study in giant cell arteritis. Lisa is a founding member of the Vasculitis Association Switzerland (VASAS) and in the scientific commission of the Swiss Clinical Quality Management in Rheumatic Diseases Foundation (SCQM).

She is a member of the EMEUNET Peer Mentoring Sub-Committee.

Rositsa is a consultant rheumatologist. She graduated from the Medical University of Sofia, Bulgaria in 2013. In 2020, she completed her rheumatology residency in the Department of Rheumatology in UMHAT “St. Ivan Rilski” in Sofia.

Her main interests include inflammatory arthritis, interstitial lung disease, systemic sclerosis and musculoskeletal ultrasound.

Rositsa is the Country Liaison for Bulgaria. She is a member of the Visibility and Global Affairs Sub-Committee.

Bohdana is an Associate Professor at Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University, Ukraine. Her PhD research focused on pulmonary involvement in systemic sclerosis and its potential correction. Her primary scientific interests lie in exploring the complex pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders, with a particular focus on understanding their underlying mechanisms and impacts. Bohdana actively contributes also as a reviewer and editor. In 2019 she received Publons Peer Review Award in Clinical Medicine.

Bohdana serves as an Associate Editor for Rheumatology International and is the Editorial Board member for Therapeutic Advances in Musculoskeletal Disease, Rheumatology Advances in Practice and BMC Rheumatology. She is also affiliated with the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and European Respiratory Society. Bohdana is a Country Liaison Sub-Committee member.

Sarah is an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer at the University of Manchester, UK. Her clinical and research interests include systemic lupus erythematosus and undifferentiated connective tissue disease.

She is interested in real-world data, clinical trial design and how molecular profiling may help determine response to therapy.

Sarah is a member of the EMEUNET Peer Mentoring Sub-Committee.

Olivier is a rheumatology fellow at the Department of Rheumatology of Besançon University Hospital in France.

His research interests include the epidemiology of inflammatory rheumatic diseases, in particular, mortality and comorbidities in spondyloarthritis. Olivier is a member of the French Society of Rheumatology and the society’s young rheumatologists section (REF).

He is a member of the EMEUNET Education Sub-Committee.

Bayram is a rheumatologist in Turkey and currently a clinical research fellow at University College London (UCL) in the UK.

His main clinical interests include inflammatory arthritis, particularly spondylarthritis (SpA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), autoinflammatory diseases, and ultrasound and injection. Furthermore, his main research interests are remission and imaging in SpA, biologic treatment in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), imaging and fatigue in RMDs. Bayram is a researcher with Versus Arthritis (UK) to establish fatigue evaluation in RMDs.

Bayram is a member of the EMEUNET Social Media Sub-Committee and EMEUNET Podcast Team.

Roba is a rheumatologist at the Department of Rheumatology of Cochin Hospital APHP in Paris, France.

Her main interests include musculoskeletal ultrasound and the epidemiology of inflammatory rheumatic diseases.

Roba is a member of the EMEUNET Social Media Sub-Committee.

Alejandro is a rheumatologist at Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. His current clinical and research activities are primarily focused on Sjögren’s Disease and the application of –omic technologies in immunomediated diseases. Another area of interest is ocular inflammation, which was also the focus of his thesis on the use of immunomodulatory therapy in non-infectious uveitis.​
He has served as a board member in the Society of Rheumatology of the Community of Madrid and as one of the coordinators of the Crystal-Induced Arthritis Study Group within the Spanish Society of Rheumatology.​
He was a member of the EMEUNET Social Media Sub-Committee from 2023 to 2024, and since 2024 he has been part of the Visibility & Global Affairs Sub-Committee.

Rebecca is a rheumatologist and deputy head of the Section of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at University Hospital Münster, Germany. She is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Münster and the Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany. She initiated and coordinated the German COVID-19 registry for patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (www.COVID19-Rheuma.de).

In addition to COVID-19, her main interests include infectious diseases associated with inflammatory rheumatic diseases, vaccinations, inflammatory arthritides, systemic sclerosis and neuropathies in inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Rebecca is a member of the German Society of Rheumatology (DGRh) and the German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM), a board member of the German Myositis Network (Myositis-Netz e.V.) and a lecturer in capillaroscopy.

She is the EMEUNET Country Liaison for Germany and a member of the Social Media Sub-Committee.

Shalaleh is a researcher at Trinity College Dublin. She is a psychologist by training; however, she is currently in the occupational therapy department focusing on non-pharmacological interventions and self-management strategies for individuals with inflammatory arthritis.

Her major interests include cognitive dysfunction in inflammatory arthritides, self-movement and work interventions, as well as patient participation and patient–health care provider discussions. She is currently a member of the Irish Psychological Association (PSI), the Association of Occupational Therapists Ireland (AOTI), and as part of her role she sits in the Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disorders Advisory Group, Mental Health Advisory Group and AOTI conference planning committee.

Shalaleh is a member of EMEUNET Peer Mentoring Sub-Committee.

Victoria is a physician researcher and PhD fellow at the Division of Rheumatology of the Medical University of Vienna, focusing mainly on clinical and translational research in inflammatory rheumatic diseases, especially rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis (RA, PsA). She is currently studying for a PhD in medical informatics and statistics, with the aim of applying tools of conventional statistics and modern data science to different fields of outcomes research and epidemiology in RA and PsA research. In a translational research project, she also works on building a PsA at-risk cohort to forward understanding of factors and mechanisms that drive the transition from psoriasis to psoriatic arthritis. ​

Victoria is an active member of the young division working group of the Austrian Society of Rheumatology (JOEGR), and is a member of the EMEUNET Newsletter Sub-Committee.​

Steph is an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer and rheumatology consultant in Manchester, UK. Her research interests include analysis of multi-omics methods to explore disease outcomes in people with rheumatoid arthritis. She is a member of the British Society for Rheumatology. She is currently an author for the 19th EULAR Online Course on Rheumatic Diseases and is a Trusted Reviewer for Arthritis Research and Therapy journal. Steph is a member of the EMEUNET Newsletter sub-committee.​

Clementina is a rheumatologist at the Department of Rheumatology of the University Hospital Reina Sofía in Córdoba, and a post-doctoral researcher at the Maimonides Biomedical Research Institute of Cordoba (IMIBIC), Spain. In 2018, she finished her PhD on comorbidities in spondyloarthritis, and then she spent 3 years as a post-doctoral fellow at the Cochin Hospital in Paris, France.

Her major interests include epidemiology and real-world data in spondyloarthritis and psoriatic arthritis. Clementina is a member of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (SER), Spanish group of interest in spondyloarthritis (GRESSER) and a full member of the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS).

Clementina is a member of the EMEUNET Social Media Sub-Committee.

Cristina is a clinical rheumatologist working at Ramón y Cajal University Hospital (Madrid, Spain), in charge of the psoriatic arthritis clinic. Her research interests are focused on psoriatic arthritis and spondyloarthritis. She is a member of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and GRAPPA.

Cristina is a member of the EMEUNET Country Liaison Sub-Committee.

Renske is a consultant rheumatologist at the rheumatology department of Haaglanden Medical Center, the Hague. Aside from working as a consultant, she is engaged in updating the Dutch curriculum for rheumatology trainees. She has a special interest in performing and teaching musculoskeletal ultrasound. This year, she passed the EULAR ultrasound trainers course in TTT in rheumatology, ready to continue teaching and organising courses.

Renske is part of the EMEUNET Education Sub-Committee.

Fernando is a physician at the Division of Rheumatology, Rey Juan Carlos University Hospital in Madrid, Spain. His work primarily focuses on clinical and translational research in inflammatory rheumatic diseases, with particular emphasis on rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

He currently oversees the monographic consultation for interstitial lung disease, where he is actively involved in both clinical care and research.

Dr. Montero is a member of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology’s special interest group for early-career professionals (JOVREUM), as well as a member of the EMEUNET Country Liaison Sub-Committee.

Wan Lin is a final-year rheumatology trainee in Ireland. She is a recipient of the Strategic Academic Recruitment (StAR) Doctor of Medicine (MD) scholarship from RCSI and the Irish Society for Rheumatology (ISR) Rheumatology Patient Initiative Fund. Her clinical interests include connective tissue disease and musculoskeletal ultrasound. Wan Lin is the lead representative for rheumatology trainees in Ireland, a board member of the Irish Society for Rheumatology and a Licentiate member of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland.

Wan Lin is part of the EMEUNET Education Sub-Committee. 

Magda is a clinician at Vardanants Medical Centre and an Associate Professor at Yerevan State Medical University.

Her research interests are connected mainly with systemic lupus erythematosus, Behçet’s disease and familial Mediterranean fever. She is fond of organising conferences and training sessions and is currently working on establishing a patient educational school for rheumatology patients in Armenia.

Magda is the secretary of the Armenian rheumatological association and a member of the EMEUNET Visibility & Global Affairs Sub-Committee.

Alex is a rheumatology resident at the First Department of Propaedeutic Internal Medicine at Laiko Hospital, part of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

His primary clinical interests include systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic vasculitides. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD, with his research focusing on the long-term outcomes of lupus nephritis.

Additionally, Alex is an active member of the Greek Society of Rheumatology and serves on the EMEUNET Country Liaison Sub-Committee.

Valentina is Assistant Professor in ImmunoRheumatology at the University of Pisa and honorary Fellow at the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham. After her clinical training in Italy, she obtained her PhD at Queen Mary University London. In 2016 She obtained independent fundings from Arthritis Research UK (Clinical Research Fellowship) to pursue her research in the field of immunometabolism and inflammation at the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI), Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). In 2019, she joined the Department of Rheumatology in Birmingham and in 2022 she moved to the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology (University of Oxford). From 2024 she holds a tenure track position at University of Pisa (Italy). Her research focuses on investigating immunometabolic pathways regulating immune responses in health and immune-mediated inflammatory disorders using bioinformatic tools and organoid cultures alongside clinical activity. She is Associate Editor for Frontiers Immunology and Inflammation (Springer-Nature). She published more than 40 peer review papers in high impact factor journals in the field of immunology, metabolism and rheumatology. Valentina is a member of the Italian and British Society of Immunology, Italian and British Society of Rheumatology, European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), and she is an EMEUNET (Emerging EULAR Rheumatology Network) sub-committee member (currently Visibility & Global Affairs, previously Social Media).

Ana is interested in paediatric rheumatology . She completed her two-year specialist training at a European Centre of Excellence in paediatric rheumatology, the Istituto Giannina Gaslini. She currently works at Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid. She is particularly focused on research in the fields of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, juvenile dermatomyositis and paediatric musculoskeletal ultrasound. Ana is the coordinator of ERNA-SER (Working Group on Rheumatic Diseases of Children and Adolescents) of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology, an active member of EMERGE and a member of the EMEUNET Newsletter Sub-Committee.​

Jan is a rheumatologist and advanced clinician scientist, carrying out his research at the Department of Rheumatology at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.

His major interests include large vessel and ANCA-associated vasculitis, as well as hypereosinophilia. He is the lead author of the German national guideline for the management of large vessel vasculitis. Jan co-authored the 2022 update of the EULAR guidelines for ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) as well as the most recent German AAV national guideline.

Jan is a member of the German Society for Rheumatology (DGRh) and the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM). He is part of EMEUNET’s Peer-Mentoring Sub-Committee.

Rudi is a rheumatology consultant in Manchester, UK. His PhD at the University of Manchester focused on multidimensional analysis of early rheumatoid arthritis phenotypes and cardiovascular disease with a focus on clinical, ultrasound measures and -omics techniques.

His major interests include early and refractory inflammatory arthritis, ultrasound, synovial biopsies and cardiovascular disease across immune-mediated inflammatory conditions. Rudi is also a member of the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) and locally has been the joint secretary of the Manchester Rheumatology Afternoon, which is a highly popular monthly educational rheumatology meeting for the North West of England.

He is a member of the EMEUNET Education Sub-Committee.