Baylor receives $3.3M grant from NIAMS to advance research in autoimmune diseases

Baylor Research Institute has received a $3.3 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), one of the National Institutes of Health, to fund its Autoimmunity Center of Excellence. The grant is awarded to Virginia Pascual, MD, the leader of the Autoimmunity Center of Excellence and a director at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR).

The Autoimmunity Center of Excellence was established at BIIR in 2009 when Dr. Pascual received a $3.5 million grant from NIAMS. The current grant is a renewal of the earlier one and builds on the successes that have occurred in the past five years.

The BIIR Autoimmunity Center of Excellence is one of only a few such centers in the nation. This designation is given to outstanding research and clinical facilities that are awarded these grants.

"This was an extremely competitive grant, and we are fortunate that our proposal was renewed. The goals of the center include understanding the mechanisms that lead to autoimmunity and developing tools to monitor these dysfunctional pathways in patients," Dr. Pascual said.

"BIIR has a very strong autoimmunity program, and the renewal of the Autoimmunity Center of Excellence further demonstrates the quality and success of our program," said Michael Ramsay, MD, president of Baylor Research Institute. "Dr. Pascual's research focuses on autoimmune diseases such as lupus, dermatomyositis and juvenile arthritis. Her work on juvenile arthritis led to a successful treatment for children who did not respond to other therapies. Her group identified an immune system protein, interleukin 1, which is over-produced in these children, and found that a drug that was already on the market could block the effects of this protein."

Dr. Pascual is a past recipient of the Kirkland Scholar Award in recognition of her work in the field of lupus. This award is given to nationally recognized scientists who study lupus.