Lupus Research Institute strategy delivers $30 million in nation...( NEW YORK NY The Lupus Research Inst...)

NEW YORK, NY The Lupus Research Institute (LRI) strategy of backing innovative investigations into systemic lupus, the autoimmune disease, has now yielded an unprecedented $30 million in large-scale funding from the National Institutes of Health and other government and private sources, an independent progress report has determined.

To date, 36 scientists have completed their novel research grants from the 7-year-old LRIan Institute investment of $9 million. A remarkable 61% of these investigators have now turned their innovative hypotheses into confirmed discoveries, winning $30 million in large-scale grants to advance new scientific approaches to how and why lupus occurs, and what can be done to prevent and treat it.

The LRI has been the leader in seeking and funding unproven but promising scientific hypotheses in lupus, said Mark Shlomchik, MD, PhD, professor of Laboratory Medicine and Immunology at Yale University School of Medicine and a member of the LRI Scientific Advisory Board. Its because the LRI supported these innovative ideas in the first place that successful competition for scarce federal funding was possible.

An estimated 1.5 million Americans, and millions more worldwide, have lupus. Many are young women in the prime of their lives. No one knows why lupus occurs, or how to prevent or cure it. There hasnt been a new treatment approved for lupus in nearly 50 years, and existing medications are often toxic and can have debilitating effects.

LRI Breakthrough Discoveries in Lupus

Since its inception 7 years ago, the Institute has invested $22 million overall in cutting-edge lupus research, and current LRI-supported investigators are poised to capture similar large-scale awards. The Institute supports scientists from wide-ranging specialties who might otherwise not receive funds for their innovative and untested hypotheses in lupus.

In a brief time, LRI scientists have made break
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