Tomas Mustelin new head of the Division of Rheumatology

Dr. Tomas Mustelin will be our new head of the Division of Rheumatology, effective September 1, 2022. He has been the interim division head since June 2021, and follows in the footsteps of Dr. Keith Elkon, who led the division for nearly 20 years.

Mustelin received his MD and PhD from the University of Helsinki, Finland and pursued his post-doctoral research at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. He had a very successful academic career, achieving the rank of full professor in just seven years, before moving to an industry position. He has over 10 years of industry experience, leading research and preclinical development of novel therapeutics in autoimmune, inflammatory/respiratory diseases and immune-oncology.

We recruited him to the University of Washington in 2018 and he currently holds the  Herndon and Esther Maury Endowed Professor in Rheumatoid Arthritis and is the associate director for the Center for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases. He has an extensive and productive training record, with many of his trainees going on to become leaders within their field. He is a stellar scientist with over 230 publications and major contributions in discovery of kinases and phosphatases that regulate immune cell signal transduction.

“I am very pleased that Tomas will be leading Rheumatology,” said Department Chair Barbara Jung. “He has a unique background in academia and industry and an outstanding reputation locally, nationally, and internationally.”