The research of Dr. Nissan Issachar from Bar Ilan, which deals with the connection between the microbiome and the body's immunity, won a grant from the Lupus Research Fund
Lupus is an incurable autoimmune disease that disrupts the immune system and causes the body to attack internal tissues. The disease, which is mostly common among young women, affects vital organs such as joints, kidneys, skin, brain, heart and lungs.
The research in the laboratory of Dr. Nissan Issachar from the Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University focuses on the interactions between the immune system and the intestinal bacteria (the microbiome). The international team of which Dr. Issachar is a member, proposes to lead the development of a completely new set of diagnosis and treatments for lupus, focusing on the intestinal bacteria.
This research recently won a $3 million grant from the Lupus Research Foundation, for which other groups of researchers from around the world competed.
The understanding of the importance of the gut microbiome for many body systems has been expanding in recent years. Today it is known that these bacteria control the development and function of our immune system, and that the use of these microbial communities can be used for a wide variety of treatments for inflammatory, autoimmune, metabolic and malignant diseases. By investigating these intermediary molecular mechanisms, Dr. Issachar and his team aim to develop microbiome-based treatment for diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and cancer.
The Lupus Research Foundation (The Lupus Research Alliance Research) is the world's largest organization for disease research. The foundation recently awarded the Global Team Science The most prestigious, to Dr. Issachar, The member of an international team of leading scientists from the University of Münster (Germany), Harvard, Yale and Cornell (USA) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).
The Lupus Research Fund aims to advance the cure by funding innovative studies on lupus all over the world, nurturing diverse scientific talents, creating international collaborations, improved treatments and ultimately, of course, reaching the long-awaited cure.
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