Alliance for Lupus Research
Miami Dade College
Prevent. Treat. Cure. These three words sum up the mission of the Alliance for Lupus Research (ALR), an organization wholly dedicated to supporting scientific research focused on eradicating the autoimmune disease lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus).
Lupus strikes primarily women in their childbearing years and disproportionately effects women of color, especially those of African, Asian and Hispanic descent. The National Institutes of Health estimate that nearly 1.5 million Americans are affected by this disease, whose symptoms can range from debilitating sun sensitivity, fatigue and joint pain, to infertility, brain damage, heart disease, and kidney failure. This number is an estimate because, as with many autoimmune diseases, symptoms vary from patient to patient and may come and go without warning, making the disease extremely difficult to diagnose. The disease seems to occur due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors, but the precise cause remains a mystery, making it impossible to predict who might be predisposed to the disease.
In lupus, the patient’s body becomes its own worst enemy. Lupus flares (periods of disease activity), during which the body attacks its own tissues, causing inflammation and damage, can occur at any moment. A person with lupus never knows when their life must be put on hold to manage a flare. Treatment can sometimes be even worse than the disease itself – currently, steroids and chemotherapy drugs, which have well-known negative side-effects, are in wide use for treatment of severe flares. No new treatments have been developed for lupus in decades. There is no cure for lupus!
Contrary to what one would think, the incidence of a disease does not dictate allocations of research dollars. Consider muscular dystrophy, for example. Not so long ago, there was $162 million in research funding for a patient pool of approximately 25,000. For cystic fibrosis, there was $87 million for a patient pool of 35,000. But for the more than 1.5 million people suffering from lupus, there was only $13 million in research funding.
The Alliance for Lupus Research is working hard to change all of these facts. The ALR’s signature grant program, Target Identification in Lupus (TIL), stands out for its focus on innovative investigation into five critical areas of research that we believe will yield important knowledge for developing new, more targeted and more effective therapies for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus): susceptibility, pathogenesis (disease development), inflammation and damage, clinical assessment, and treatment/therapies. Through a rigorous peer review system, the ALR awards two-year grants of $500,000 to research projects at the finest laboratories and medical schools throughout the world. Eighteen months after awarding grants, the ALR reviews each project, and those showing the most promise receive additional funding of up to $1 million.
This past November 2008, the MDC Dental Hygiene Students and faculty as well as other program students from the Medical Center Campus participated in the first annual Miami Walk with Us To Cure Lupus event in Coral Gables, helping to raise over $2,000 designated for the TIL Program. Program Coordinator and students from the Massage therapy program provided massages following the walk to interested participants. Without this type of community support, researchers will be forced to abandon promising studies, and people with lupus, and their loved ones, will continue to suffer.
One hundred percent of all contributions go directly to support lupus research programs because the ALR’s board of directors pays for administrative and fundraising costs!
For more information on Lupus or the Alliance for Lupus Research, please contact:
Dwight Eisenman
Regional Fundraising Coordinator
Alliance for Lupus Research
954-563-1250 Phone
954-563-1249 fax
deisenman@lupusresearch.org
www.lupusresearch.org