New Round of Lupus Research Institute Awards Brings Promise of More Bre...( 12 Grants Enable Testing...),Health

12 Grants Enable Testing of Innovative Hypotheses

NEW YORK, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lupus Research Institute (LRI) has announced the selection of its 6th round of Novel Research Grants-crucial funds to scientists across the nation primed to explore entirely new ideas on why the lupus immune system so tragically attacks the body it should be protecting. The LRI is the only national nonprofit organization singularly devoted to pioneering innovative lupus research.

The outlay of $300,000 to each scientist in this latest round of grants brings the LRI's total investment in novel lupus research to $22 million for 85 grants since the Institute was founded in 2000 - the largest number and the widest range of privately funded lupus research nationwide. Studies span 51 academic medical centers across 20 states. The 2007 investigators are working at academic institutions from Connecticut to California, New York, Virginia, Washington, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

"This strategy of focusing funding only novel scientific ideas in lupus has more than demonstrated its power," said William E. Paul, MD, chief of the Laboratory of Immunology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease-National Institutes of Health, and chairman of the LRI's Scientific Advisory Board. "Through its annual support, the LRI strengthens the lupus research landscape and moves novel concepts forward to secure large-scale federal funding."

And if previous results are any guide, these unexplored ideas hold enormous promise for breakthroughs and extended funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other sources. LRI-funded scientists have turned the Institute's $9 million investment from 2001 to 2004 into a record $30 million in new grant funding from the NIH and other sources.

This year's recipients of the highly competitive grants, which propose investigations that range from fundamental exploration of the immune system to cl
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