Autoimmune Life Blog

When Jessica Hamerman, PhD, was perusing research papers in 2021, one discovery stopped her in her tracks — and ultimately put her on a whole new research path.

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.

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.

Before BRI Lab Aide Noah Biru had degrees in engineering and biochemistry — and was headed to Yale to pursue a PhD in immunology — he was a little kid who wanted to help his mom.

Since the pandemic started, BRI researchers have been hard at work trying to understand COVID-19’s biggest mysteries — like why people have such different responses to the virus and how it affects people with autoimmune disease.

BRI scientists were sure of one thing when the novel coronavirus struck: They had the expertise to make swift progress toward understanding it and finding better treatments. “Studying how the immune system responds to viruses has been part of our work for years,” says BRI’s President Jane Buckner

When people with diseases like lupus and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA) are feverish and light-headed, doctors start to worry:  These symptoms can indicate a life threatening condition called macrophage activation syndrome (MAS).