The Lupus Research Institute - which partners with lupus community organizations across the country, including the Lupus Foundation of Northern California - has earned a reputation for awarding grants for novel approaches to lupus research. These grants are given to promising research prospects that are nonetheless unconventional, out-of-the-box. LRI's grants have in the past proven to be major seed funding for novel research to become proven and earn new research funds to the tune of billions. Here are LRI's 2014 Novel Research grantees and how each of them is advancing lupus research:

• Dr. Ralph Budd will investigate if damaged mitochondria (the cell's energy factories) promote inflammation in lupus, which could lead to new treatment approaches.
• Dr. Jin Wang is studying if a failure of white blood cells to recycle and renew their mitochondria (a process known as autophagy) is involved in the development of lupus, which will establish if therapies aimed at correcting these defects have potential benefit.
• Dr. Amy Major is asking whether a breakdown in communication between cells of the immune system involving a new cell-to-cell messenger molecule is to blame.
• Dr. Hans Haecker is using genetically engineered mice to identify immune system processes that cause disease, allowing for the development of novel targeted therapies for lupus.
• Dr. Shiaoching Gong is using innovative technology to study how changes in the TNFAIP3 gene contribute to the development of lupus.
• Dr. Betty Diamond is testing if lupus autoantibodies drive up levels of the hormone prolactin and increase the severity of lupus. If so, existing drugs that decrease prolactin levels may be able to limit the extent of the disease. [...]
• Dr. Josh Thurman will develop and test new experimental treatments that block lupus kidney damage directly where it happens, without causing widespread suppression of the immune system.  
• A new targeted treatment to prevent lupus damage of the central nervous system will be tested by Dr. Chaim Putterman.
• Dr. Lijun Yang is asking whether low blood cell count (anemia) in lupus can be reversed by an arthritis drug that prevents damage to essential blood-cell producing stem cells in the bone marrow.
• Dr. Keith Elkon's study of how sunlight impacts lupus is expected to provide opportunities to test therapies to treat skin lupus and prevent disease flares.

Read more about these grants and LRI here. The Lupus Foundation of Northern California is proud to partner with the LRI and our sister organizations in the LRI National Coalition to support, advocate for, and advance lupus research.

LFNC's upcoming medical conference will be hosted in Marin County, and headlined by Dr. Maria Dall'Era. Dr. Dall'Era, who has headlined a previous conference, is considered one of the country's foremost experts on lupus. Dr. Dall'Era is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Rheumatology Clinical Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco.  She is also the Director of the UCSF Lupus Clinic, UCSF Center Director of the Lupus Clinical Trials Consortium (LCTC), and Principal Investigator of the California Lupus Surveillance Project (CLSP).

Our July conference will be hosted in Marin, as LFNC continues our commitment to serve all of northern California. Other than Santa Clara county, we have previously brought the conference to San Francisco, Fremont, Redwood City and Oakland. The July conference will be the first to be held north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

More details will soon follow.