Linda Hiraki MD, FRCPC, ScD

Dr. Linda Hiraki is a Clinician-Scientist in the Division of Rheumatology and a scientist in the Genetics & Genome Biology Program at SickKids Research Institute. Hiraki completed her medical degree at Queen’s University, and her clinical training in paediatrics and rheumatology at SickKids. She is certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in the specialties of paediatrics and paediatric rheumatology. Hiraki went on to pursue research training at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she completed a Master's and Doctor of Science in Epidemiology. Hiraki holds a Canada Research Chair in Genetics of Rare Systemic Inflammatory Diseases.

Hiraki is coordinating a large, international cohort of systemic lupus erythematosus patients followed prospectively over years of disease to understand the genetics of lupus, its many manifestations, the disease course, and related outcomes. She is also leading studies to identify rare genetic changes leading to systemic inflammatory diseases, as well as Neonatal Lupus Erythematosus (NLE) studies.

Dr. Hiraki’s current research interests include examining the genetic contribution to complex, rheumatic diseases and their associated long-term outcomes. She is applying methods that take advantage of rich, longitudinally collected clinical data along with both common and low-frequency genetic variants to discover new genetic associations with manifestations and complications of the complex disease. Hiraki is also employing novel methods for transethnic studies of admixed populations with complex diseases.

She is also interested in using repeated measures to better characterize disease course and identify both environmental and genetic risk factors for adverse outcomes in rheumatic disease.