LRI Leads the Lupus Biomarker Search

Monday, July 30, 2007

In its commitment to staying open to powerful new ideas in lupus research, the Lupus Research Institute has reaped a remarkable reward for the more than 1.5 million Americans and millions more worldwide with this devastating disease—a panel of candidate biomarkers that may have the potential to change the way that lupus affects their lives.

In just 6 years, the LRI has invested $6 million in novel studies that are now generating findings on 20 potential lupus biomarkers. This research is taking place today in laboratories nationwide and is as varied and heterogeneous as the multi-system disease itself.  “Of the numerous highly promising biomarkers for lupus currently under investigation,” notes Hugh O. McDevitt, MD, professor of immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine and an LRI Scientific Advisory Board member, “several were generated by the high-risk, high-reward approach of the LRI. The Institute’s contribution to lupus biomarkers has been immeasurable.”

An independent outside assessment of the Institute’s 3-year studies completed so far shows that seven have such potential as biomarkers that testing them in people and human tissue has already begun. And first glimpses of the many studies still underway indicate that six or more could lead to completely new candidate biomarkers.