New Strategic Plan Holds Great Promise

The LRA has one purpose-to work on multiple fronts to improve the health of everyone with lupus through the power of science.

Even with the unprecedented challenges of 2020, the LRA not only has remained true to this mission-the organization took a bold step forward with the launch of an even more comprehensive strategic plan that will shape 2021 … and beyond.

Already the world’s foremost lupus research organization, this plan will enable the LRA to make breakthroughs with greater speed and direct the very way lupus research is conducted for the next decade.

Informed by years of LRA-funded research-and developed in consensus with the world’s leading experts in lupus, rheumatology, immunology, and other key fields­ the new strategic plan is a visionary roadmap to new treatment options and a cure.

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

Lupus is heterogeneous, meaning that the symptoms are many and vary widely from patient to patient – that’s why it is so difficult to develop effective treatments that target the underlying disease pathways in each patient.

Because no one treatment plan works for everyone with lupus, the LRA is taking a three-pronged approach to its research investigations.

► We will identify distinct and shared disease pathways among individuals with lupus. Learning more about the disease’s diversity will allow the entire lupus research community to design new drugs that target specific groups of patients, as well as to apply the existing drugs more effectively to patients who are most likely to benefit from them.

► We will advance new treatments. With our affiliate, Lupus Therapeutics and its network of 57 prestigious academic clinical research centers, the LRA will work toward discovering new disease pathways and targets. We will stratify patients by specific disease characteristics that can lead to more personalized treatment options and more successful clinical trials.

► We will place greater emphasis on collaborative research. We will support diverse scientific leaders, ideas, and technologies in lupus research in dynamic, emerging areas of promise.

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

“In an extremely turbulent year, the LRA has made enormous progress in the development of a strategic plan that will speed the pace of discovery—as we did everything in our power to safeguard our community from COVID-19”.
—Kenneth M. Farber
LRA President and CEO