With a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, a new Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, or ACE, will be established at UCLA to study the mechanisms that cause autoimmunity and identify potential cures.

Autoimmunity occurs when the body’s defense system turns against tissues in its own body. For example, in people with Type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, requiring patients to take lifelong daily insulin injections to avoid severe illness. Some kinds of autoimmunity happen spontaneously or run in families; some occur as a side effect of cancer treatments. Eighty percent of patients with autoimmune diseases are women.

The ACE at UCLA, led by microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics professor Dr. Maureen Su, will focus on hormone-related (endocrine) autoimmune disorders, like Type 1 diabetes.

“We have medicines for these types of autoimmune conditions, but they fail to address the root of the problem,” said Su, who is also a practicing pediatric endocrinologist at UCLA. “For example, we treat Type 1 diabetes with insulin in the clinic, but the primary problem is the immune system. Right now, we replace the insulin that is missing, but we don’t fix the immune system’s constant damage to the insulin-producing tissues. Without these insulin-producing tissues, blood sugars can be very difficult to keep in control, despite treatment with insulin as a medicine. Rather than just Band-Aiding the problem, we aim to fix the actual autoimmune problem.”

Seeking targets for cures, the new center will house three main projects, each focused on a particular research question:

  • How is long-term autoimmune disease established? While some autoimmune conditions resolve over time, others establish themselves more firmly. This project will be led by Dr. Manish Butte, a UCLA professor of pediatrics and chief in the division of immunology, allergy and rheumatology.
  • How do cancer immunotherapies cause autoimmune disorders? Some immunotherapies used to fight cancer seem to cause autoimmune disorders. How does this happen? Dr. Melissa Lechner, a UCLA assistant professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, will be leading this project.
  • What are the mechanisms that create sex differences in endocrine autoimmune disorders? This project, funded by the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, will be led by Su. Willy Hugo, an adjunct assistant professor in the UCLA Department of Medicine, will lead data analysis for the center.

“Last decade, we made great advances in how to use immunity to treat cancer,” Su said. “This decade, I anticipate that we will make great strides in learning how to treat autoimmunity.”