Variants underlying sex bias in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

PROPOSAL NARRATIVE Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder of significant public health relevance, affecting more than 1.5 million Americans, the vast majority of which are women of childbearing age. We propose to identify genetic variants on the X chromosome that contribute to sex bias in SLE and to develop novel systems to directly address their role on the X chromosome and in SLE. Results from this study have potential to provide new knowledge on SLE biology, X chromosome inactivation regulation and to identify novel targets for therapeutic development.