Howard Chang
Stanford University, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Many autoimmune diseases look alike, and patients with the same disease can differ greatly. This makes it hard to diagnose them accurately, predict how they will progress, or choose treatments.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
- Topics
autoimmune disease
autoantibodies
Xist RNP
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Characterize anti-Xist RNP antibodies (AXA), autoantibodies against a female-specific RNA-protein complex, in patient blood using a newly developed protein array.
- Test whether AXA patterns distinguish patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis and dermatomyositis, as well as disease subtypes and severity.
- Evaluate whether AXA predict long-term progression of scleroderma using longitudinal samples from patients with early systemic sclerosis, and whether they predict response to therapy.
More about the research
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis (SSc, also called scleroderma) and dermatomyositis (DM) all have long histories of these challenges, and all are more common in women. Recent findings show that patients with several autoimmune diseases carry high levels of autoantibodies, antibodies that attack the body's own molecules. Here the targets are the XIST ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex, an RNA-protein assembly found only in female cells. These are called anti-Xist RNP antibodies (AXA). This project asks whether AXA can improve diagnosis and prediction.
Why it matters
Autoimmune diseases affect nearly 50 million Americans, and about 80% of patients are female. Female-biased diseases such as lupus, scleroderma and dermatomyositis are hard to tell apart and to forecast. Blood tests for anti-Xist RNP antibodies could help doctors diagnose these diseases, predict disease course and anticipate treatment response.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sung Lim
Emory University, GA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether social determinants of health, such as economic and neighborhood conditions, predict work loss, end-stage kidney disease and mortality among people with systemic lupus erythematosus in the Atlanta-area GOAL cohort.
Johann Gudjonsson
University of Michigan, MI·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how plasmacytoid dendritic cells and keratinocytes in lupus skin interact over space and time to start and sustain type I interferon responses, the antiviral-like signaling that marks lupus inflammation.
Erin Taylor
Augusta University, GA·Physiology
Test whether extra visceral fat worsens lupus and hypertension through harmful immune cells in fat, by surgically or pharmacologically depleting fat or its immune cells in female NZBWF1 mice.
The school
Stanford University: 87 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 739 research doctorates a year.
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