Autoimmune diseases afflict between 23.5 million and 50 million Americans. Women, specifically, have an increased risk of developing an autoimmune disease because of factors such as genetic predisposition, environmental exposures, and hormone fluctuations. To help further research dedicated to women’s health and autoimmunity, NIH established the Accelerating Medicines Partnership^® Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases Leadership Scholars Program (AMP^® AIM LSP) supported by ORWH, the NIH National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy. An overarching goal of AMP^® AIM LSP is to prepare the next generation of scientific leaders to advance women’s health research. 

The AMP^® AIM program is a collaborative effort between NIH, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, pharmaceutical companies, nonprofit organizations, and academic grant recipients aimed at studying the cellular and molecular interactions and pathways that lead to inflammation and autoimmune diseases. The AMP^® AIM Network brings together experts in the areas of psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjögren’s disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus, as well as experts in the molecular analysis of tissue and other biological specimens, data analysis, biorepository, and data management.

Through a second round of funding for AMP^® AIM LSP, we are pleased to announce pilot project support for the three following award recipients: 

• Lauren Henderson, M.D.
• Shruti Naik, Ph.D.
• Fan Zhang, Ph.D. 

Dr. Henderson, from Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, specializes in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Dr. Henderson’s proposal titled “Regulating peripheral helper T cell and B cell responses in children and adults with autoantibody-positive arthritis” examines the discrepancy in outcomes between RA and oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (oligo JIA). Dr. Henderson will begin by studying peripheral blood and synovial fluid samples from antinuclear antibody positive (ANA+) oligo JIA and seropositive RA patients enrolled in AMP^® AIM for RA and in the JIA biorepository. 

Dr. Naik studies PsO at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her proposal “Leveraging Multi-Omics to Decode Cell-Specific Psoriatic Predisposition and Relapse” examines two unique research questions. First, Dr. Naik will utilize single-cell technologies to understand PsO-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms with cell-specific manifestations. From here, Dr. Naik will use these data to agnostically define disease memory across all skin cell types. This study will create a high-dimensional map of psoriatic skin over the course of disease flares and remission. 

Dr. Zhang comes from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Her proposal titled “Deciphering sex-biased phenotypes by developing novel computational AI methods for autoimmune diseases” will seek factors that account for the strong gender disparity among autoimmune diseases. Dr. Zhang will develop advanced artificial intelligence methods to identify sex-biased immune phenotypes in women with autoimmune disease. In addition, Dr. Zhang will unravel the complex interactions between sex and disease using single-cell multi-omic data generated as part of the AMP^® AIM study. 

To date, nine AMP^® AIM LSP projects have been funded. As part of the LSP team science awards, scholars have an opportunity to participate in robust team science training, one-on-one mentorship from AMP^® AIM investigators, AMP^® AIM network working groups, and scientific meetings. This training will help the scholars to develop the skills necessary to become the next generation of scientific leaders. Congratulations to our newest AMP^® AIM Scholars!