Grant Number: U19AIO82715
Principal Investigator: Virginia Pascual, MD
Funding Organization: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Office of Research on Women’s Health
Project Start: May 15, 2009
Project End: April 30, 2014

Abstract:
We propose to create an Autoimmunity Center of Excellence that will incorporate the efforts of clinicians, human immunologists (both basic and translational), physician-scientists with clinical expertise and research experience in autoimmunity, bioinformaticians, and genomics/systems biologists. Together, the assembled group has an extensive background in clinical trials and a proven track record for merging basic and clinical science. This team is committed to bringing innovative treatments from the laboratory bench to their patients’ bedside. Within this collaborative setting, a systems biology approach is proposed to focus on both pediatric and adult autoimmune diseases.

The goals of the Center are:

1) To assess the efficacy of novel targeted therapies, 2) To develop simple and robust biomarkers using state-of-the-art genomic approaches, 3) To understand the role of recently identified T cell subsets in disease pathogenesis, and 4) To assess antigen-specific responses in pediatric and adult autoimmune diseases.

These projects will provide a better understanding of the pathogenesis of specific autoimmune diseases and allow us to develop a strategy to assess disease activity based on novel transcriptional markers as well as to identify autoantigen-specific immune responses.

The Center will deliver:
1) Innovative clinical trials targeting specific cytokines in psoriasis & dermatomyositis.
2) Development of biomarkers for dermatomyositis, psoriasis, lupus and multiple sclerosis.
3) Identification of novel therapeutic targets in dermatomyositis.
4) Development of assays to test autoantigen-specific immune responses.
5) Development of a unique microarray database of human autoimmune diseases.