Chief Medical Advisor

Dr. Kalunian is a co-developer of all Bento Biology platforms and serves as Bento Biology’s lead medical advisor. He co-authored the US Patent for Bento’s Health Monitoring System with Machine Learning, Precision Eye-Blocking Filter for HIPAA Compliance, and Gamified Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM) with Single Tap Symptom Reporting (Bento Flare Application). He serves as Professor Medicine at the UC San Diego Center for Innovative Therapy with his broad background in clinical research with a focus on the design and conduct of novel immumodulary therapies for systemic lupus erythematous and osteoarthritis, and on translational medicine, which includes the development of biomarkers of response to novel therapies. He founded UC San Diego’s Lupus Center of Excellence, a bench- and clinical- science research hub and a multi-disciplinary center for care of complicated lupus patients. He was the Inaugural Chair of the Lupus Clinical Investigators Network (LuCIN), a national collaborative clinical trial network. He is also a member of several Grant Review Committees for the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).

Board Service

• Lupus Clinical Investigators Network (LuCIN), Inaugural Chair

• Lupus Foundation of America (LFA)-sponsored Collective Data Analysis Initiative (CDAI), Founder and Inaugural Director

• Scientific Council of Lupus Therapeutics, Former Chair

• UC San Diego Center for Innovative Therapy, Co-Director

• Southern California Rheumatology Society, Former President

• Scientific Advisory Boards of Lupus Research Alliance and Lupus Foundation of America

Education

• Saint Louis University, M.D.

• UCLA and UCLA/San Fernando Valley, Internal Medicine Residency

• UCLA, Chief Internal Medicine Resident

• UCLA, Rheumatology Fellow

• Lutheran General Hospital, Arthroscopic Surgery Fellow