NIH Launches $4 Million Study of Autoimmune Disease Causes

The National Institutes of Health has given a University of Houston (UH) pioneer in autoimmune research, Chandra Mohan, $4 million to launch a 10-year study to examine what causes the body to attack itself and identify biological pathways that could become targets for new treatments.

The focus of the study will be on systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren’s syndrome and systemic sclerosis. The hope is to identify the earliest biological triggers of autoimmune disease, as well as identify early biological changes in autoimmune diseases, years before the disease develops, potentially opening the door to new prevention strategies and treatments.