Autoimmune Life Blog

Scientists at the Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) and TrialNet, a global type 1 diabetes (T1D) research consortium, have spent decades working to answer a bold question: Can we stop T1D before it starts?

Steven Ziegler, PhD, still has questions about a protein called thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) — even after studying it for more than 30 years. The Ziegler Lab helped establish that TSLP plays a role in asthma, lupus and several cancers.

Hayley Waterman was in college when her mom was diagnosed with a mixed connective tissue autoimmune disease. “It’s similar to lupus but even more vague in definition,” Hayley says.

Immune cells perform different functions in different parts of the body. Some fight off infections in the skin. Others protect the lungs from pollutants. But how do these cells learn to do the right job in the right place? And why does that process sometimes go wrong?

Your gut is home to a huge community of bacteria called the microbiome. Some bacteria are good, some are bad — and some might hold the key to understanding an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

As an immunologist focused on skin-related autoimmune diseases, Peter Morawski, PhD, never thought he’d study viruses. Then the pandemic hit. “It was this crazy, chaotic time. Everything came second to wanting to help,” he says.

As the next chapter of COVID-19 unfolds, we’re hearing that the virus will likely become endemic (in the northern hemisphere) — and it will be part of life for the foreseeable future.

A macrophage is an immune cell that’s like a vacuum, zooming around your body and cleaning up things like old cells and bacteria. But occasionally, macrophages get confused and start eating healthy red blood cells.

This issue of vaccine efficacy has taken center stage in light of the pandemic. A BRI team led by Estelle Bettelli, PhD, and Yevgeniy Yuzefpolskiy, PhD, recently made key findings about how three different medicines for multiple sclerosis (MS) impact response to COVID-19 vaccines.

To better treat — and even prevent — autoimmune diseases, we need to know exactly what causes them. Scientists have long known that genetics play a role in these diseases but are still working to understand how and why.