UMass Chan Medical School announced that the university will become one of the first institutions to participate in the new Lupus Landmark Study and the Lupus Nexus nationwide biorepository—a new initiative established in 2023 by the Lupus Research Alliance and its affiliate Lupus Therapeutics. Roberto Caricchio, MD, Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine, and the Myles J. McDonough Chair in Rheumatology at the university, received a $1.2 million award from the Lupus Research Alliance to develop a novel lupus biorepository and registry at the university’s Lupus Center with the goal of determining why certain patients with lupus do not respond to treatment. Dr. Caricchio noted that he and his colleagues hope to enroll 3,500 patients into the registry by 2029—and follow them to track outcomes. The patients will be asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their experiences with the disease as well as submit blood and urine samples. He hopes the new resources may help researchers better understand lupus from the patients’ perspectives and store patient samples until advances in technology can allow for more adequate analysis. “The funding is not only a recognition of my commitment to lupus, but also recognizes that UMass Chan has a center where patients [with lupus] receive advanced care and are followed in a collaborative effort by a rheumatologist, a nephrologist, and a dermatologist,” concluded Dr. Caricchio.
February 15, 2024