Earlier this month, the University of Rochester Medical Center again became one of only nine institutions nationwide to receive a new wave of National Institutes of Health dollars designed to pave inroads into unraveling – and treating – autoimmune diseases.
In 2003, a similar endeavor to establish nine “Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence” (or ACEs) – which would supercharge research into conditions like lupus, diabetes (type 1), multiple sclerosis and some types of arthritis – also targeted URMC. Together with Duke University and the University of California, San Francisco, Rochester’s is among only three of the original ACEs to be refunded, receiving at least $5 million over the next five years, and possibly more if supplementary money is awarded for additional trials.
Historically, URMC has been a powerful player in the field of immunology, with researchers knee-deep in deciphering the inner workings of the immune system, and in hot pursuit of new ways to manufacture vaccines. But according to Ignacio Sanz, M.D., chief of the division of Allergy/Immunology & Rheumatology at URMC, and also principal investigator for URMC’s ACE, it’s also possible the broad-reaching nature of the proposed projects was a key factor in the Rochester center’s renewal.
“Our studies will focus on fundamental questions – namely, how immune cells, like B and T cells, are misregulated, confusing the body into attacking its own tissues,” Sanz said. “What we learn is likely to illuminate research across the whole spectrum of similar diseases.”