Professor Patrick J Venables is head of the Citrullination and inflammation group at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford. He obtained a degree in Medical Science and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Cambridge. He was subsequently awarded an MD in 1986 and became Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1993 and was awarded a chair in rheumatology at Imperial College in 1994.

Between 1974 and 2011, he was a clinical academic specializing in rheumatology and autoimmunity at the Kennedy institute, Imperial college and Charing Cross Hospital in London. Professor Venables' discovery of citrullinated enolase as a new autoantigen in rheumatoid arthritis in 2005 has led to several internationally collaborative papers published in journals such as Nature Genetics and Arthritis and Rheumatism. He and his research team at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford, which investigates the hypothesis that infection can induce autoimmunity in rheumatic disease and hence play an important role in pathogenesis.

His interest in autoimmunity in rheumatic disease has resulted in over 100 papers and contributions to several text books of rheumatology and medicine, also receiving several awards including a teaching excellence award (Imperial College) in 2007 and outstanding service care and research award in 2009.

His current work in Oxford is supported by three grants from the EU, and one from the Trustees of the Kennedy Institute.