Helena Marzo-Ortega (LMS MRCP PhD), is a Consultant Rheumatologist and an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Leeds. She is the Clinical Lead of the multi-award winning Leeds Spondyloarthropathy service at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, where she has contributed to develop a successful multi-disciplinary, multi-specialty clinical and research hub.
Following the completion of her PhD at the University of Leeds, Helena’s academic activity is largely focused on translational research where her main areas of interest are early arthritis and spondyloarthritis including psoriatic arthritis, with a special focus on the role of imaging biomarkers and biologic therapies. Helena has broad expertise as clinical triallist, and has been PI or CI to over 50 clinical trials ranging from phase II to phase IV. She was the Inaugural Lead for the West Yorkshire NIHR CRN (2008-2012) and has built strong collaboration over the years with many groups in the UK and abroad. Her research activities currently focus on identifying treatment strategies in early Psoriatic arthritis, charactering biomarkers of response to therapy in AS and PsA, and the preclinical phase of psoriatic arthritis.
Helena has published extensively in high-impact journals and has written multiple chapters in text books. She currently combines her clinical activity with an active membership of different working groups within EULAR and OMERACT. At national level, Helena is current Chair, founder member and Trustee of the British Society for Spondyloarthritis (BRITSpA) and a past member of the British Society for Rheumatology’s Heberden Committee. Internationally, she is a member of the Executive Committee of the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS) and has been part of the Scientific Committee of the International Spondylarthritides Congress since 2008 . She was co-President of the 11thInternational Congress in Gent in 2018.
Helena sits on the Medical Advisory Board of the UK National Ankylosing Spondylitis patient Society (NASS) and the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA). She is a member of the steering committee of the Leeds Female Leaders Network, which aims to bring and support women into academia.