Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases are newly diagnosed world-wide in over 60M patients every year. However, identifying the correct treatment for each patient can be challenging due in part to high disease heterogeneity, resulting in many patients failing to reach remission. Human genetics has identified thousands of genetic loci that impact disease predisposition and provide insight into novel disease mechanisms. In order to effectively translate these findings into novel treatments appropriate for specific patient populations, additional insight into the mechanistic relationships between genetic loci and disease is needed. The goal of this research project is to understand disease mechanism heterogeneity within inflammatory and immune-mediated related diseases to better identify appropriate treatment strategies for patients. Specifically, we will examine the relationships among genetic variants, disease phenotypes, multiomic traits including proteomics and metabolomics, and other participant phenotypes to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms associated with disease presentation, onset, and progression. These insights will be used to better understand disease heterogeneity, which may help identify patient subpopulations and guide selection of targeted therapeutics in future studies.
