In August of 2019, the LRA had the great fortune to form a unique new partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb (formerly Celgene Corporation) -in the creation of the LRA BMS Accelerator Awards. The aim: Fast-track bold cutting-edge research projects.

To get this initiative off the ground and running, the Celgene Corporation made an extraordinarily generous pledge of $3 million! Today, the LRA is pleased to announce that—after a rigorous review process-nine of the world’s most brilliant lupus researchers have been selected as grantees

“We await good things from these top-flight investigators as they broaden the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of disease … address how much the disease varies from person to person … and identify novel biomarkers,” said Kenneth M. Farber, President and CEO of the LRA.

MEET THE LRA BMS ACCELERATOR AWARDS RECIPIENTS

Marta Alarcon-Riquelme, MD, PhD
New Drug Targets for Lupus Through Mechanistic Modeling o f Multi OM/Cs Data
Fundacion Publica Andaluza Progreso.

Ilana Brito, PhD
Biomarker Identification in SLE Identified via Microbiome-Host Interactions
Cornell University

Joseph Craft, MD
Pathogenesis of Chronic Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus
Yale University

Patrick Gaffney, MD
Epigenome Profiling in Human SLE
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

Joel Guthridge, PhD
Dissecting Molecular Urinomics as a Guide to Heterogeneity of SLE Patient the Renal Immune Treatment Response Landscape in SLE
Oklahoma Medical University of Houston Research Foundation

Michelle J. Kahlenberg, MD, PhD
Longitudinal Systemic and Organ-specific Heterogeneity in Lupus
The Regents of the University of Michigan

Vivian Kawai, MD
Virtual Transcriptome and Proteome in Lupus Pathogenesis and Heterogeneity
Vanderbilt University

Chandra Mohan, MD, PhD
Urinomics as a Guide to the Renal Immune Landscape in SLE
University of Houston

Victoria Werth, MD
Immunologic Mechanisms for Heterogeneity of Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania