Autoimmune Life Blog

In addition to his role as BRI’s Director of the Immunology Research Program for the past 13 years, Steve Ziegler, PhD, assumed the new position of director of Academic Affairs at BRI, as of Jan. 1.

In March of 2015, 13-year-old Lizzie Blockhus experienced a week of being very tired and not feeling well. “I woke up in the middle of night and was dying of thirst,” she explains. “Then I was at my sister’s soccer game, dying of thirst again and I knew something wasn’t right.

This research update is on a variety of studies that BRI is conducting or collaborating on with other institutions. They are tackling various scientific and immunologic questions that explore innovative ways to fight MS from the lab to clinical studies.

“You can’t lay tracks until you know where the train is going,” says BRI Director Gerald Nepom, MD, PhD. “In immunology research, that translates into discovering what the immune system cells are doing and identifying their different roles.

At Benaroya Research Institute, philanthropic investments have been absolutely critical to the success of scientific endeavors, innovative ideas and medical breakthroughs.

Forty-year-old Cheryl Hile runs marathons, bicycles and holds a demanding full-time job—impressive accomplishments but, on the surface, not especially remarkable in this day and age.

If you’re searching for a story of human triumph in the face of living with autoimmune diseases, look no further than the Biesold family.

Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) is relatively small compared to large research universities, but its impact goes well beyond its size and location, accelerating scientific discovery globally.

Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) has been awarded another leadership role in type 1 diabetes research. Carla Greenbaum, MD, BRI’s director of the Diabetes Research Program and Clinical Research Center, has been named chair of Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet.

There are approximately 50,000 immune cells in every single drop of blood. In a person with an autoimmune disease, only one or two of those cells cause the disease, while the others are busy protecting the body from unrelated infections and toxins.