Bruce Cronstein, MD, received his bachelor’s degree from Lake Forest College and his medical degree from the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine. He completed his residency in Pathology at the NYU Medical Center and a residency in Internal Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital. Cronstein completed his training in rheumatology at NYU Medical Center and, supported by a Fellowship Award from the Arthritis Foundation, continued his research training. From 1985-1990 Dr. Cronstein was a recipient of a Clinical Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health and in 1988 Dr. Cronstein was awarded the Irene Duggan Arthritis Investigator Award. In 1989 Dr. Cronstein was a recipient of a Whitehead Presidential Fellowship. Dr. Cronstein was also named a Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Research Hero at the Dr. Cronstein is board certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is currently a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Interurban Clinical Club, the American College of Rheumatology, American Society of Investigative Pathology, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, American Association of Immunologists among numerous other societies.

Dr. Cronstein has previously served as the Director of Rheumatology and Director of the Arthritis Clinic at Bellevue Hospital. From 1988 to 1991, he was a member of the New York Chapter Arthritis Foundation Grant Review Committee and from 1992 to 1994 served as Chairman of the Committee. Dr. Cronstein is also a past President of the New York Rheumatism Association. He is currently the chair of the Medical and Scientific Committee of the New York Arthritis Foundation and the SLE Foundation and is a member of the National Arthritis Foundation Medical and Scientific Committee. Dr. Cronstein has served on the Arthritis, Connective Tissue and Skin Diseases Study Section of the NIH from 2001-2004 and chaired the committee from 2004-2006, and has served on numerous other grant review committees. He is the founding Director of the Masters in Clinical Investigation Training Program at NYU School of Medicine where he is the Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Dr. Cronstein has served on numerous committees at NYU School of Medicine as well as serving on numerous committees of the American College of Rheumatology.

Cronstein’s research interests include the role of adenosine as an endogenous inhibitor of inflammation and promoter of fibrosis and wound healing. In the past Dr. Cronstein’s laboratory first proposed and demonstrated that adenosine mediates the anti-inflammatory actions of methotrexate, the most commonly used antirheumatic agent for the treatment of RA. In other work Dr. Cronstein and his laboratory have shown that adenosine and its receptors play an important role in the promotion of wound healing and this finding has led directly to the development of adenosine A2A receptor agonists for the treatment of poorly healing wounds, a concept which is currently being tested in the clinic.