The IDAD program aims to improve our understanding of the immunologic processes underlying the initiation, progression, and clinical course of autoimmune diseases. The research thus focuses on defining the immunologic states and dynamics that drive the development of autoimmune diseases with the goal of preventing autoimmunity or stalling its clinical progression. All IDAD projects are focused solely on human subjects. IDAD researchers will develop and utilize novel approaches that may enhance the feasibility of future large-scale studies by reducing costs and burden to subjects.
Main Areas of Focus
- To better understand the mechanisms by which genetic variants influence the course, progression, and clinical features of autoimmune diseases
- To identify biomarkers of flare, remission, and progression of autoimmune disease
- To investigate the evolution and regulation of immune responses during disease progression or flare
- To refine molecular-level markers of autoimmune diseases into mechanistic understanding of cellular or humoral immune dysfunction in those diseases
- To elucidate immunologically distinct endotypes within autoimmune diseases
- To better understand the mechanisms by which environmental or microbial influences modulate immune responses to result in flare, remission, or progression of disease
IDAD Funded Projects
- Mechanisms of New-Onset Autoimmunity/Longitudinal Immune Systems Analysis (MONA-LISA), directed by David Karp and Joel Guthridge. The goal of this project is to understand the immunological mechanisms that drive asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic individuals towards a definite diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus.
- Autoimmune Drivers and Protectors Team Science (ADAPTS), directed by Judith James and Jeffrey Rathmell. This program is testing a number of potential drivers and restraints of autoimmune disease using unique patient cohorts and broad investigator expertise.
- Predictive drivers of new onset, relapse, and progression of human autoimmunity in skin, directed by John Harris, Manuel Garber, Darrell Irvine and Mehdi Rashighi. The project will use skin sampling and computational integration of clinical, genetic, and molecular data points to define a “preclinical signature” of autoimmunity that can be used to predict disease initiation and systemic progression.
- T cells promoting transitions toward autoimmunity, directed by Jane Buckner and Alice Long. These studies investigate how immune cells promote the transition from sub-clinical autoimmunity to autoimmune disease, focusing on individuals at-risk for type 1 diabetes and individuals with Down syndrome, who are at higher risk for developing autoimmune disease.
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