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Our Research Road Map

The Lupus Research Alliance has set out on a bold new Strategic Plan for Research that identifies core issues and establishes research priorities to transform lupus research, accelerate breakthrough treatments and, ultimately, find a cure through the power of precision medicine. This Strategic Plan is built on years of Lupus Research Alliance-funded research and developed in collaboration with leading experts in lupus, rheumatology and immunology. The plan is a road map to new treatment options and a cure. It seizes a unique scientific moment of rapid developments in technology and human immunology to launch new initiatives that will transform lupus research and patient care.

We are at a critical crossroad, one where the Lupus Research Alliance is poised to unravel the challenge at the core of lupus.

Lupus is heterogeneous, which means that symptoms are many and vary from patient to patient. That’s why it is difficult to diagnose lupus and develop new treatments for this disease.


BECAUSE NO ONE TREATMENT PLAN WORKS FOR EVERYONE WITH LUPUS, THE LUPUS RESEARCH ALLIANCE IS TAKING A THREE-PRONGED APPROACH TO ITS RESEARCH INVESTIGATIONS.

1. Define lupus heterogeneity: the core issue in lupus.

The Lupus Research Alliance is leveraging its resources to mobilize the research community to identify distinct and shared disease pathways among lupus patients. Understanding the heterogeneity of the disease will allow the development or use of tailored therapies for lupus patients.


2. Stratify patients by active disease mechanism to advance new therapeutics.

The Lupus Research Alliance is working toward discovering novel disease pathways and targets that could be linked to patient heterogeneity. Subdividing patients with specific disease characteristics could lead to improved treatment options and more successful clinical trials.


3. Establish motivated and collaborative Global Research Technology teams. 

We are leveraging the Lupus Research Alliance’s resources to bring in diverse scientific leaders, ideas and technologies to lupus research with the belief that the synergistic collaborations will stimulate discovery and progress.

The Lupus Research Alliance’s Strategic Plan for research also ushers in a new governance structure for the organization, including a Research Committee of the Lupus Research Alliance Board of Directors. The Research Committee provides dynamic scientific leadership, oversight and expertise to the governance of the overall research programs at the Lupus Research Alliance. The Research Committee also oversees and works with the Lupus Research Alliance Scientific Advisory Board, which brings global expertise and vision in key scientific areas required to deliver on the Lupus Research Alliance’s strategic priorities.


 

We will leave no stone unturned when it comes to looking for new treatments for people with lupus­, making our aim for safer, more effective and more targeted options … a more tangible reality.

Learn more about the impact of our research efforts.