Robert Lahita
Director
Institute for Autoimmune & Rheumatic Disease
St. Joseph’s Health
United States of America
Prof. Robert Lahita is the Director of the Institute for Autoimmune and Rheumatic Disease at St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson, New Jersey. He is a Master of the American College of Rheumatology, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians in London. His research interests are the molecular aspects of antigen expression in reproductive immunology, the effects of sex and gender on the autoimmune diseases, and the etiopathogenesis of the phospholipid syndrome.
He is the author or editor of more than 16 books and 150 scientific publications in the field of autoimmunity. He is the editor of the standard textbook now called “Lahita’s Systemic Lupus Erythematosus”, the senior editor of the Textbook of Autoimmunity and co-editor of the Yearbook of Rheumatology. He is also author of several books for lay audiences: Lupus: Q&A; Autoimmunity in Women, the way the body betrays itself; and finally, Immunity Strong (released Jan 5, 2022).
Prof. Lahita is a Professor of Medicine at the new Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He proudly served as an Associate Professor in Immunology for 11 years in the laboratory of the legendary Henry G. Kunkel at The Rockefeller University in New York City. While at Rockefeller, he was an adjunct Professor at Weill-Cornell Medical School. For more than a decade, he was also an Associate Professor at Columbia University. Prior to his current work, Prof. Lahita was Chair of Medicine at Saint Joseph Medical Center, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, and Jersey City Medical Center and was Division Director of Rheumatic Disease for many years at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. He also served as Division Chief of Rheumatology at Saint Vincent Hospital in New York City and Professor at NYMC. He has trained countless medical students, residents, and fellows during his career.
Prof. Lahita is a reviewer for some 15 medical journals and on the editorial boards of three. He has also been an associate editor for the Lupus International Journal since 2004.
He is also a volunteer emergency responder since 1990 and was featured in the recent documentary Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11. He was present during the 911 attacks on America and is featured in many works like the “Faces of Ground Zero” and others. Currently, he is a Volunteer Medical Director of the Village of Ridgewood, NJ (since 1990) and Saddle River, NJ.
Prof. Lahita is an expert on immunity, autoimmune, and rheumatic disease and is consulted constantly by media across the globe including Reuters, Newsmax, Fox Business, Fox News, NBC Now, MSNBC, EWTN, CBSN, LxNBC, Newsnation, and other national and international media.