Assassi honored as NSF Doctor of the Year
Shervin Assassi, MD, MS, professor; Dr. Noranna B. Warner Endowed Chair in the Division of Rheumatology; and George S. Bruce, Jr. Professor in Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases, was named the “Doctor of the Year” at the annual National Scleroderma Foundation meeting for his outstanding dedication to improving the lives of people living with scleroderma.
Assassi serves as the director of the Division of Rheumatology and professor of internal medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. He also co-directs the medical school’s Scleroderma Program, home to one of the nation’s largest specialized systemic sclerosis clinics. The program has made significant contributions to defining the genetic and transcriptomic profiles of this complex autoimmune disease.
A widely recognized translational and clinical researcher, Assassi has co-authored more than 225 peer-reviewed publications in the field of scleroderma. He has also held prominent leadership roles in the international scleroderma research community. Notably, he was instrumental in establishing the Collaborative National Quality and Efficacy Registry (CONQUER), the first nationwide observational cohort of systemic sclerosis patients in the United States. His laboratory serves as the Biorepository Coordinating Center for this landmark initiative funded by the Scleroderma Research Foundation.
Additionally, Assassi has served on the steering committees of several multicenter clinical trials in systemic sclerosis. He chairs the research committee of the National Scleroderma Foundation Medical and Scientific Advisory Board, and he is the immediate past president of the Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium.
Founded in 1998, the National Scleroderma Foundation aims to advance medical research, promote disease awareness, and provide support and education to people with scleroderma.