The National Institutes of Health has awarded grants to 11 research groups across the United States to establish the Accelerating Medicines Partnership in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus (AMP RA/Lupus) Network. Launched in February of this year, the NIH AMP Program is a public-private partnership developed to transform the current model for identifying and validating the most promising biological targets for the development of new drugs and diagnostics. Through a competitive process, the AMP RA/Lupus Network Leadership Center and Research Sites were selected, and $6 million of first-year funding was awarded on Sept. 24, 2014. The network will implement the goals of the broader AMP RA/Lupus Program.

“These awards represent the first phase of an unprecedented approach to identify pathways that are critical to disease progression in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “Insights gained from this effort hold the promise of enhancing quality of life for patients and family members affected by these and other devastating autoimmune diseases.”

RA and lupus are relatively common, severe autoimmune diseases. These disorders share similar flaws in immune function and…

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