Profile
LNRUK Co-lead, Newcastle
John Isaacs MBBS, PhD, FRCP is the William Leech Professor of Rheumatology at Newcastle University and Director of Research at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals. Over the past 30 years, his work has focused on the potential of novel immunotherapies to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA), from target identification to early- and late-stage clinical trials.
Professor Isaacs runs a research group focussed on therapeutic tolerance induction, including the development of tools for immunological monitoring of recipients of tolerogenic therapies. His team has pioneered tolerogenic dendritic cell therapy for inflammatory arthritis patients. He also has a longstanding interest in precision therapeutics for rheumatic disease, having led the Medical Research Council/Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries RA-MAP consortium, seeking prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers for RA.
Prof Isaacs is past Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (2019-21). From 2007 to 2017 he chaired Arthritis Research UK’s Clinical Study Group for Adult Inflammatory Arthritis, developing a competitive research agenda for the UK. He currently chairs the Research Oversight Group for Newcastle Health Research Partners, enabling cross-partner multidisciplinary research to improve the health and wealth of the regional population, with a particular focus on underserved communities. He is also Deputy Director of the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre in Ageing and Long-Term Conditions. In 2026 Prof Isaacs was awarded the Jan van Breemen medal of the Dutch Society for Rheumatology, for his contributions to the field of rheumatology.