Professor Cairns is a faculty member in the Department of Medicine (Rheumatology) and also in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Her other affiliations include: Program of Experimental Medicine, Lawson Health Research Institute and Centre for Human Immunology. She is the winner of the Schulich Educator Award and The Calder Foundation Research Award. She has served on grant review panels of the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and is currently a member of the CIHR College of Reviewers. Professor Cairns’ research focuses on the pathogenesis of the autoimmune disease called Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). She studies the role of MHC class II molecules as well as autoantigens (citrullinated and homocitrullinated proteins) in the development of this disease using human clinical specimens and an animal model for RA (humanized MHC class II tg mice). She is currently involved in designing vaccines to specifically block the development of RA and is testing their efficacy in MHC class II tg mice.