News

Peter K Gregersen, Professor of Medicine, Head of the Robert S Boas Center for Genomics and Human Genetics at the Feinstein Institute, Manhasset, US. Special AutoCure adviser

“With a biomarker you are a beggar, with a cohort you are a king”…....In genetics we
today have in one sense too much data and at the same time we need much more
data. One of the major challenges is linking these massive new genetic data sets
with clinical phenotype and outcome. Therefore, sharing and collaboration is critical,
and this is why projects like AutoCure are so important. There are over 40 loci
that are known to affect the risk to develop RA and other autoimmune diseases. It is
a major challenge to go from these associations to cause and function, and there
is clearly a significant amount of “missing heritability” still to be found in the genome.

Of course, we are also hoping that some of these newly discovered risk alleles,
such as PTPN22, could be an interesting drug-target in the future, for autoimmunity,
infectious disease, or other clinical situations in which subtle manipulations of immune
thresholds would be desirable.