Lupus Center of Excellence

Joseph M. Ahearn, MD
Dr. Ahearn is Co-Director of the Lupus Center of Excellence and Chief Scientific Officer for Allegheny Singer Research Institute at West Penn Allegheny Health System.

Dr. Ahearn graduated with academic distinction from Cornell University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he received the Johns Hopkins Medical Society Student Research Award for his research related to lupus. Dr. Ahearn completed his medical internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, during which time he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), the national medical honor society. He completed his fellowship in rheumatology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr. Ahearn has received the W. Barry Wood Scholarship, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Physician Scientist Training Award, and the Hilda Irene Duggan Arthritis Investigator Award. He is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in research related to the cause and mechanisms of lupus. Dr. Ahearn has served on numerous review panels for the NIH and other funding agencies, the Editorial Board of the Journal of Immunology, the Merit Review Board for Immunology in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the NIH General Clinical Research Center Review Committee, and he has served as scientific reviewer for more than 30 medical and scientific journals. Dr. Ahearn is currently Executive Editor of the discovery journal Clinical and Translational Science. He holds more than a dozen patents in the field of lupus biomarkers and was named Pitt Innovator in both 2005 and 2006. He is co-founder of Cellatope Corporation, a start-up company focused on lupus and personalized medicine. Dr. Ahearn has published more than 100 reports of research in lupus and related diseases.