Autoimmune Life Blog

Community and news about autoimmune diseases, allergies and more.

Blog Main Cheryl Hile Marathon Editorial
November 1, 2015

Marathon Runner Fights MS

Forty-year-old Cheryl Hile runs marathons, bicycles and holds a demanding full-time job—impressive accomplishments but, on the surface, not especially remarkable in this day and age.

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Blog Main Biesold Family Editorial
October 1, 2015

Inspiring Family Supports Research

If you’re searching for a story of human triumph in the face of living with autoimmune diseases, look no further than the Biesold family.

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Blog Main Image - Scientific Mouse Small Intestine Organoid 1
September 8, 2015

Collaboration Accelerates Research

Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) is relatively small compared to large research universities, but its impact goes well beyond its size and location, accelerating scientific discovery globally.

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Blog Main Image - Woman Fist Raised Silhouette
September 1, 2015

New Leadership Role

Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) has been awarded another leadership role in type 1 diabetes research. Carla Greenbaum, MD, BRI’s director of the Diabetes Research Program and Clinical Research Center, has been named chair of Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet.

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Blog Main Image - Researcher Woman Pipetting Samples Lab 2
August 1, 2015

Pipeline Analyzes Destructive Cell

There are approximately 50,000 immune cells in every single drop of blood. In a person with an autoimmune disease, only one or two of those cells cause the disease, while the others are busy protecting the body from unrelated infections and toxins.

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Blog Main Image - Researcher Woman Working Hood Glass
July 1, 2015

Donor Support Launches Laboratory

As a young, enthusiastic scientist, Jessica Hamerman, PhD, joined Benaroya Research Institute in 2006 ready to delve further into understanding the inflammatory response of a certain type of cell that is an early responder to infections.

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Blog Main Image - BRI Samples Frozen Hand Tongs
June 8, 2015

Your Blood Can Advance Research

For nearly 45 years, Marcia Wollam has cared for people at Virginia Mason Hospital. Initially she served as an LPN and then she became a patient flow coordinator on the Rehabilitation Unit. But she always wanted to do more to help people.

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Blog Main Image - BRI Building Rear
June 1, 2015

Thirty Years of Progress

In the early 1980s, the leadership team at Virginia Mason made the important decision to establish a biomedical research center focused on immunology. Immunology at that time was an emerging field, anticipating a future era of medical applications.

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Blog Main Image - Peanut Butter Sandwich
May 1, 2015

ITN Completes Landmark Study

A new study recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrates that consumption of a peanut-containing snack by infants who are at high-risk for developing peanut allergy prevents the subsequent development of allergy.

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Blog Main Ann Ramsey Editorial
April 8, 2015

Philanthropist Ann Ramsay-Jenkins Supports Matrix Biology Program

“What she’s done for medical science, the arts and education is outright phenomenal,” says Tom Wight, PhD, Director of Benaroya Research Institute’s Matrix Biology Program. He’s talking about his grade school friend Ann Ramsay-Jenkins.

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