Penn Vet doctors receive NIH grant to target canine autoimmune diseaseOctober 4, 2018Nicola J. Mason, BVetMed, PhD, and Aimee S. Payne, MD, PhD, have received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Transformative Research Award, part of the institute's High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, for their work in targeting autoimmune disease in dogs. Under the grant, Drs. Mason and Payne are looking to evaluate a genetically engineered cell-based therapy to treat dogs with naturally occurring autoimmune skin disease known as pemphigus. Dogs are one of the few other species to develop pemphigus, a condition that mirrors pemphigus in human patients. Evaluation of this approach to treat pet dogs with the disease may ultimately lead to breakthrough therapies for humans. According to the Autoimmune Disease Research Center at Johns Hopkins, at least 10 million Americans suffer from the more than 80 illnesses caused by autoimmunity. "The successful treatment of autoimmunity in the family dog using this unique approach would not only be a breakthrough in veterinary medicine, but could also change the way autoimmune disease is treated in humans," said Mason, associate professor of medicine and pathobiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Penn Vet. "We believe that this work may facilitate the translation of cellular immunotherapies for a broad range of canine …
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