2025 Distinguished Rheumatologist Award

Rae S. M. Yeung MD, PhD, FRCPC

Dr. Rae Yeung is Professor of Paediatrics, Immunology and Medical Science at the University of Toronto, and Staff Physician and Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children. The central theme of Dr. Yeung’s research is precision medicine in childhood arthritis and rheumatic diseases. She partners phenotype with biology to understand the mechanisms governing autoimmunity towards discovery of cellular and molecular tools for improved disease diagnosis, treatment, outcomes and prevention. The integrated program is reflected in linked clinical, research and educational activities that are internationally recognized. Dr. Yeung’s goal is to transform the treatment of affected children by defining the underlying biologic causes of their diseases to ultimately develop a precision medicine approach to improve outcomes.

To achieve this goal, Dr. Yeung established extensive partnerships in the clinic and in research to improve care, and to provide a family focused opportunity for children to have an integrated experience with a multi-disciplinary team providing care and the opportunity to seamlessly participate in research. She has extended partnerships and established translational research platforms and consortia serving as the founder and scientific director of local, national and international translational research networks to directly complement clinical care.

Dr. Yeung and her team have used state-of-the-art techniques including cellular and animal models partnered with multi-omic and machine learning approaches to define the biologic pathways responsible for disease. Her work has improved understanding of disease etiology and pathogenesis, and more importantly has altered clinical practice. Knowledge generated in disease models have been translated to the bedside, resulting in improved understanding of the pathobiology of disease, biomarker identification, clinical trials, and a proposed new disease taxonomy integrating clinical and genomic data and improved clinical practice guidelines to manage affected children.