Profile of:

Clara Mistegaard

Clara Mistegaard, MD PhD, is a clinician-researcher and rheumatology trainee at Odense University Hospital, Denmark. She graduated from Aarhus University in 2018 and has been involved in research on innate immunity since 2015. She completed her PhD at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital in 2024, investigating the role of the complement system in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), with a particular focus on diagnosis, treatment response and prognosis. During her PhD, Clara developed national and international collaborations and spent a research stay at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in 2022, supported by a EULAR Scientific Training Grant for Young Fellows, under the supervision of Professor Denis Poddubnyy and Dr Fabian Proft. The collaboration has resulted in several publications and continues to develop. Her current research builds on this work, with a particular interest in the interplay between the microbiome, the complement system and clinical manifestations of axSpA and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). In 2025, she was awarded a FOREUM Platinum Grant to investigate the role of the microbiome and complement system in axSpA and PsA. She currently holds a clinically integrated postdoctoral position alongside her specialist training in rheumatology. She is actively involved in the international spondyloarthritis community through EMEUNET, GRAPPA and ASAS and contributes to national Danish recommendations for the management of axSpA and other rheumatic diseases. Her research interests include translational approaches linking immunological mechanisms with clinical phenotyping and patient-centred outcomes.