Research

With over a hundred peer-reviewed manuscripts published in spondyloarthritis, the Spondyloarthritis Research Program of UTHealth Houston is one of the premier spondyloarthritis research centers in the world. Our research encompasses a bedside to bench to approach –including clinical and translational studies that have helped advance the understanding of pathogenesis, patient-impact and treatment. We also have an educational goal to help mentor and train the next generation of SpA researchers. The UTHealth Spondyloarthritis program has one of the largest patient cohorts with participation of over 2,0000 spondyloarthritis patients worldwide in collaboration with other academic centers.


Our Investigators

John-ReveilleDr. John Reveille, Director and Founding Investigator

Dr. Reveille, the founder and director of the UTHealth Spondyloarthritis program has served as the director of the North American Spondylitis Consortium (1999-2004) and he has also served as the principle investigator of the NIH-funded Program Project on the Genetics of Spondyloarthritis and co-founder and member of the Executive Committee of the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN). Dr. Reveille has received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Spondylitis Association of America in 2003, and has served on their Board of Directors since 2007. He was selected as a Master of the American College of Rheumatology in 2019 and in 2020 he received the SPARTAN Research Career Achievement Award. His passion for conducting spondyloarthritis research is unabated as his research interests continue through his ongoing translational studies of pathogenesis and disease activity.

Past examples of Dr. Reveille’s publications: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov?/


Mark HwangMark Hwang, Investigator

Dr. Hwang is a physician-scientist that studies spondyloarthritis. He conducts patient-oriented research by studying outcomes from cohort studies and conducting adaptive, investigator-initiated clinical trials in spondyloarthritis. Additionally he uses computational analytics to study the large, patient datasets. He serves as an active member of the ACR, SPARTAN, and Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis. Dr. Hwang was awarded the Jane Bruckel Early Career Investigator Award in Axial Spondyloarthritis in 2021 and completed a KL2 Scholar Program from the UTHealth/MD Anderson Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences 2019-2021.

Past examples of Dr. Hwang’s publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/


We are currently enrolling patients with axial spondyloarthritis for these clinical studies:

Individualizing Anti-Inflammatory Medications for Adults with Axial Spondyloarthritis: A series of N-of 1 trials

  • A NIH-funded, investigator-initiated clinical trial to help identify 1st line treatments. Prospective Study of Outcomes of Ankylosing Spondylitis
  • A NIH-funded, multicenter patient cohort started originally in 2002

Please contact Reyna Chavez if you are interested in participating
Email: Reyna.Chavez@uth.tmc.edu
Phone: 713-500-5678
Fax: 713-500-0580