Newswise — The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) of the National Institutes of Health recently announced that Baylor Scott & White Research Institute will be home to one of four new Centers of Research Translation, or CORTs. NIAMS will fund $8.5 million over five years toward the center’s research, which aims to better understand the development of severe lupus in children and could ultimately lead to new personalized treatments.
CORTs are team science programs designed to address translational research challenges in diseases or conditions within the mission of the NIAMS and aim to bring research from bench to bedside. Virginia Pascual, MD, will lead the CORT at the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, part of Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, to understand how the changes in gene expression contribute to the development of lupus. She’ll build on her previous pioneering work to correlate lupus disease activity with certain gene expression profiles.
The Center for Lupus Research will focus on novel genomic technologies and bioinformatic resources to monitor pediatric patients who suffer from severe forms of lupus, potentially leading to new interventional strategies and personalized treatments, Dr. Pascual said.
“Lupus is a complex autoimmune disease that can affect multiple organs,” Dr. Pascual said. “We expect that knowledge gained through the implementation of these studies will permit us to better understand what drives the disease in each individual patient in order to apply personalized treatments, which should have a greater chance of being successful.”
CORTs each contain highly meritorious translational research projects, one or more research cores and an administrative core, according to NIAMS. Combined, the projects and cores will generate new knowledge to improve understanding of human pathophysiology. They aim to identify new therapeutic targets, develop more effective treatments or diagnostics, or design novel prevention strategies for human disease.
About Baylor Scott & White HealthFormed from the 2013 merger between Baylor Health Care System and Scott & White Healthcare, the system referred to as Baylor Scott & White Health is the largest not-for-profit health care system in the state of Texas. With total assets of $9 billion* and serving a population larger than the state of Georgia, Baylor Scott & White Health has the vision and resources to provide its patients continued quality care while creating a model system for a dramatically changing health care environment. The system now includes 47 hospitals, more than 900 access points, 6,000 active physicians, and 44,000 employees, plus the Scott & White Health Plan, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute and Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance — a network of clinical providers and facilities focused on improving quality, managing the health of patient populations, and reducing the overall cost of care. For more information visit: BaylorScottandWhite.com* based on unaudited 2015 fiscal year statements
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