Saira Z Sheikh, MD

Dr. Saira Sheikh is the Linda Coley Sewell Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Sheikh is a nationally renowned physician, researcher, clinical trials investigator and educator. She is trained, and triple board certified in Internal Medicine, Rheumatology and Allergy/Immunology. 

She is the Director of the Clinical Trials Program at the UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center, and Director of the UNC Rheumatology Lupus Clinic. She is Principal Investigator on numerous clinical trials and translational projects for new therapeutics and leads real-world, practical models to increase access and opportunities for patients to participate in lupus clinical trials. She is also the lead investigator of a large, federally funded project focused on utilizing machine learning models/AI for earlier diagnosis of lupus entitled Automated Reasoning and Interpretation for Early Lupus detection.

She also leads the UNC Lupus Multidisciplinary CAR-T and Cell Therapy Group. 

Dr. Sheikh has an outstanding reputation for her expertise amongst patients and colleagues across the institution and nationally and patients travel from around the country to see her in the clinic. She also currently serves on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR’s) Board of Directors. 

Dr. Sheikh serves as the Chair of the Lupus Clinical Investigators Network (LuCIN), which is the largest and premier lupus clinical trials network in North America.

She also serves on the Medical & Scientific Advisory Council for the Lupus Foundation of America.