Letting Science Lead the Way to a Cure

Patients, their families, and top scientists established The Lupus Research Institute (LRI) in 1999 out of a sense of urgency to attack and defeat lupus, a disease that affects approximately 1.5 million Americans. Nearly fifty years have passed with no major new treatment for this complex and unpredictable autoimmune disease. Existing medications are highly toxic and can have debilitating effects.

Today LRI stands at the forefront of innovation in lupus research. Since its founding in 2000, its Campaign for a Cure has raised millions and awarded more than $23 million in grants to 85 scientists at leading institutions nationwide. To date, 65 percent of LRI investigators who completed their LRI studies have gone on to secure large-scale funding from the NIH and other government offices.

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Remarkable Results

The Institute backs bold, high-impact basic and clinical research studies grounded in sound deductive logic. Scientific and medical specialties represented among grant recipients range from rheumatology to cardiology, nephrology, neurology, and dermatology. LRI also invests in the future by recruiting, motivating, and supporting talented new investigators.

The strides that LRI-funded investigators have made in just a few years are tremendous. They've uncovered mechanisms, treatments, and potential diagnostic techniques in kidney disease (lupus nephritis), cardiovascular disease, lupus-releated central nervous system disease, and photosensitivity.

Since co-sponsoring a landmark meeting at the NIH in 2002, the LRI has been at the leading edge of the biomarker priority—introducing the first biomarker research initiative in lupus and stimulating the federal government to focus larger funds on the search for biomarkers. Scientists view these "early predictors" as essential to diagnosing patients and assessing lupus activity, organ damage, and response to therapies.

Powerfully Organized

The LRI is headquartered in New York City, but its reach and scope are nationwide. In a major move to put muscle and size behind its advocacy work, the LRI recently formed a National Coalition of state and local lupus organizations and committed individuals. The impact of this coalition has been tremendous, and counts among its many successes in advocacy the recent congressional directive to develop a 5-year research plan for lupus across the powerful Institutes of the NIH.

Representatives from major state lupus organizations sit on the LRI's distinguished board of directors. Leading lupus scientists serve as members of its Scientific Advisory Board and sit on review panels which evaluate applications for Institute funding.

The LRI embodies the passion and commitment of all those affected by lupus, in its mission uniting people with the disease, their families, and leading physicians and scientists. Science offers no cure—yet. But the LRI intends to fight until that day comes.