Autoimmune Life Blog

A pattern emerged at the beginning of the pandemic: COVID-19 led to an overly aggressive immune response in some people, causing deadly inflammation.

At age 14, Mara, who is now in her 30s, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. A few years ago, she also learned she had celiac disease and was recently confronted with a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.

A team led by Peter Linsley, PhD, and Karen Cerosaletti, PhD, recently uncovered a clue that could help solve the mystery of why and how T1D starts and maybe even open the door to new therapies that stop the disease.

Rain was pouring down on the morning of Gretchen Schoenstein’s 100th half marathon — a day she’d dreamt of but wasn’t sure would ever come. That morning, the event’s producer asked her to share a few words.

Becky Ronan has seen firsthand how research has impacted life for people with Down syndrome. When her older brother Kevin was born with Down syndrome in 1967, her parents were advised not to bring him home. “Most people with Down syndrome were put in institutions,” Becky says.

For nearly 20 years, Dr. Buckner has been working to find a more targeted approach with fewer side effects. And she’s among a handful of scientists pursuing an intriguing idea: Can we use gene editing to change cells that cause disease into cells that protect you from disease?

Bill Kwok, PhD, has made groundbreaking discoveries and built a tool that’s fueled countless advances. But he makes his work and his path to BRI sound simple: Why study the minute details of the immune system? Well, he’s curious — he was always at the library as a kid.

Just when you thought you were done being an armchair epidemiologist, the Omicron chapter of the COVID-19 pandemic brings more questions. Will the new variants ever end? Are there any new protections, especially for people at higher risk of complications?

You’ve probably heard of Down syndrome. You may even remember that it’s caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. But fewer people know that almost half of those with Down syndrome have an autoimmune disease. Or that they are at lower risk of solid tumor cancers like breast cancer.

Among the many mysteries of autoimmune diseases, we know one thing for sure: These diseases are connected. They often occur when immune cells called T cells mistakenly attack healthy tissue — say the pancreas in type 1 diabetes (T1D) or the gut in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).