Enhancing NIH research on autoimmune disease

"Autoimmune diseases occur when the body's immune system malfunctions and mistakenly attacks healthy cells, tissues, and organs.

Strong data on the incidence and prevalence of autoimmune diseases are limited, but a 2009 study estimated the prevalence of autoimmune diseases in the U.S. to be 7.6 to 9.4 percent, or 25 to 31 million people today.

This estimate, however, includes only 29 autoimmune diseases, and it does not account for increases in prevalence in the last decade.

By some counts, there are around 150 autoimmune diseases, which are lifelong chronic illnesses with no known cures.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was asked to assess the autoimmune disease research portfolio of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Enhancing NIH Research on Autoimmune Disease finds that while NIH has made impressive contributions to research on autoimmune diseases, there is an absence of a strategic NIH-wide autoim