LA JOLLA INSTITUTE RESEARCH AMONG 2007's FINEST
BIOCOM - January 29, 2008 - A finding by La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) researchers that could one day lead to new avenues for treating inflammatory bowel diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases has been cited by Nature Medicine as one of the key biomedical research advances of 2007. Nature Medicine is one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals for biomedical research and is respected internationally for the quality of its scientific papers.
The Institute's finding, based on laboratory studies in mice, demonstrated the role of a Vitamin A derivative, retinoic acid, in fighting inflammation, and it was originally published in the journal Science in June 2007. Hilde Cheroutre, Ph.D., led the research team, entirely from LIAI, in which Daniel Mucida, Ph.D., and Yunji Park, Ph.D., were key contributors. The finding is an important first step that, if eventually found to be safe and applicable in humans, points to the potential of new therapies using retinoic acid, already used to treat some types of leukemia, to treat various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
Nature Medicine's 2007 Year in Review section, which appeared in its December issue, discussed the LIAI finding in an article on Notable Advances highlighting key biomedical research findings in 10 areas during 2007. "Nature Medicine's recognition of the LIAI finding as a key advance further validates the importance of this exciting work," said Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., LIAI president and scientific director. "Dr. Cheroutre and her team are continuing to delve further into this discovery which has opened a new frontier in inflammation research."
Founded in 1988, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology is a nonprofit medical research center dedicated to increasing knowledge and improving human health through studies of the immune system.