Recruitment of healthy volunteers to understand the function of immune pathways predisposing to autoimmune disease

Summary

We are studying the autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), which affects mainly young people and can cause a range of problems including skin rashes, arthritis, kidney disease and brain disease.

Although the cause of this disease is so far unknown, we know that genes (currently about 50 have been identified) are important in this process. Understanding how these genes control the cells and proteins of the immune system will give us important information about where to look to understand further what is happening in patients with disease, and therefore which parts of the immune system could be targeted with new treatments.

Participation: For this study we recruited 32 volunteers from the Cambridge BioResource to give a 60 ml blood sample.

Organisation: This study is organised by Professor Tim Vyse from King's College London.