Marcela A. Ferrada, MD

As a rheumatologist, Dr. Ferrada specializes in diagnosing and treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including conditions of the joints, muscles and bones such as arthritis. She has special clinical and research interests in relapsing polychondritis, a rare condition that causes inflammation of the body's cartilage.

Relapsing polychondritis is a passion of Dr. Ferrada in large part because she was diagnosed with the condition in 2015. After her diagnosis, she changed her career focus to studying the disease. She was pivotal in recruiting and evaluating the first available prospective cohort of patients with relapsing polychondritis at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has become a world leader in the field. In addition, she has given several grand rounds presentations at academic institutions and international meetings about relapsing polychondritis and VEXAS syndrome, a rare and severe autoimmune condition that can cause blood problems, fever and inflammation leading to organ damage.

Dr. Ferrada is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society at the University of Miami. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Distinguished Fellow Award from the American College of Rheumatology (2018), the Outstanding Research Award from the Rheumatism Society of the District of Columbia (2018), the Lawrence Shulman Scholar Award (2019) and the NIH Director's Award (2021).