Dr. Lisa Christopher-Stine MD, MPH

Dr. Lisa Christopher-Stine is Professor of Medicine and Neurology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (since June 2022), Co-Founder and Director of the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center (since March 2007), and Physician at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She is Principal Investigator of the Johns Hopkins Myositis Research Registry, a global cohort of over 3,000 patients with confirmed or suspected muscle disease. She is Co-Chair of the Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board (IRB 5) and a longstanding core faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine College Advisory Program. She serves as Scientific Advisor to IAG, Image Analysis Group, bringing expertise in inflammatory myopathies and myositis clinical trial design and endpoint development.

Dr. Christopher-Stine’s primary research focus is clinical research in inflammatory myopathies, encompassing dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis, inclusion body myositis (IBM), immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM), and antisynthetase syndrome. Her most significant scientific contribution was the co-discovery of the anti-HMGCR autoantibody, which defined a new subtype of statin-associated immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy and established a new diagnostic paradigm enabling clinicians worldwide to identify and treat a previously misdiagnosed patient population (Arthritis & Rheumatology 2010 and 2011). She has a continued interest in statin toxicities toward muscle, both as a direct toxin and as a contributor to autoimmune muscle injury.

Her current translational research encompasses cardiovascular complications in inflammatory myopathies, the contribution of skin and gut microbiome to myositis phenotypes, prediction of clinical outcomes, burden of calcinosis in adult dermatomyositis (including novel imaging modalities, notably ¹⁸F-NaF PET/CT for calcinosis quantification), and patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures in myositis clinical trials. She co-chairs the OMERACT Myositis Special Interest Group, an international initiative developing patient-driven outcome measures for use in inflammatory myopathy clinical trials. Her methodological expertise includes muscle MRI (STIR imaging, quantitative diffusion-weighted imaging, ADC mapping), autoantibody discovery and characterization, and longitudinal registry-based cohort research.

Dr. Christopher-Stine has extensive experience as principal investigator and contributor to sponsored clinical trials in inflammatory myopathies. Named trials and study contributions confirmed from supplied sources include: a proof-of-concept clinical trial of tofacitinib in refractory dermatomyositis (post-hoc muscle MRI analysis published ACR Open Rheumatology 2026); the VALOR Phase III trial of brepocitinib in dermatomyositis (Journal of Investigative Dermatology 2025; New England Journal of Medicine 2026); the Phase II trial of dazukibart (anti-IFNβ monoclonal antibody) in dermatomyositis (The Lancet 2025); a Phase II/III study of ulviprubart in inclusion body myositis (Neurology 2026); a single-arm Phase 1 trial of pioglitazone in IBM (Nature Communications 2026); and a prospective study of myocarditis prevalence in newly diagnosed IIM at the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center (Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology 2025). She is PI of the Johns Hopkins Myositis Research Registry (3,000+ patients), which serves as a resource for sponsored trial screening and endpoint development. She co-chairs the OMERACT Myositis Special Interest Group developing patient-reported outcome measures for use as endpoints in inflammatory myopathy clinical trials.

Dr. Christopher-Stine has 255 publications listed on ResearchGate with 12,662 citations. She has been consistently named one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly (since 2008). She received the Arthritis Foundation’s Medical Champion Award in 2022 and the Myositis Association’s Medical Hero Award in 2022 (with her Myositis Center team). She has received prestigious visiting lectureships including the Canadian Rheumatology Association Dunlop-Dottridge Lectureship, the Health Manpower Development Plan Visiting Expert appointment from the Singapore Ministry of Health, and the Bilka Visiting Professorship at the Mayo Clinic. She received the 2025 Susan M. MacDonald Sponsorship Excellence Award for the Career Advancement of Women Faculty at Johns Hopkins. She graduated Cum Laude with Phi Beta Kappa from Franklin and Marshall College, was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha at Hahnemann University School of Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology.

Dr. Christopher-Stine received her B.A. in Chemistry (Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA (1988 to 1992). She obtained her MD from Hahnemann University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA (1993 to 1997), graduating with Alpha Omega Alpha distinction. She completed her internship, residency, and chief residency in Internal Medicine at MCP Hahnemann University Hospitals, Philadelphia, PA, and her rheumatology fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She obtained her MPH in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2002 to 2004). She joined the Johns Hopkins faculty and co-founded the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center in 2007, was appointed Associate Professor of Medicine and Neurology in September 2014, and was promoted to full Professor in June 2022.