Our goal is to understand more about lupus, specifically systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), through studying diverse patients around the globe. Dr. Lewandowski is a clinician-scientist and has seen the impact of SLE on her patients, including severe inflammation and organ damage, when the disease begins in childhood. Our major focus is to learn more about lupus through the study of patients with early onset of disease. We aim to use cutting-edge genomic and transcriptomic methods to further the understanding of SLE.  

Dr. Lewandowski has worked internationally studying SLE. She has established collaborations to understand how lupus affects children throughout the world. Her previous work determined that pediatric lupus patients in South Africa had severe disease and high rates of non-reversible damage from inflammation. Dr. Lewandowski now aims to more fully understand the drivers of severe disease in childhood-onset patients globally using genomics and transcriptomic techniques. Our lab believes that lupus is a heterogeneous disease, and there are likely multiple molecular pathways that lead to this diagnosis. Through studying a diverse patient population, we aim to better understand the mechanism of disease. Defining those pathways in global populations can lead to a more refined, molecular categorization of patients. Our work is patient-focused, and our mission is to identify important targets in SLE that could be modified with precise therapeutics. We believe that the more we understand about lupus patients everywhere, the more we understand about lupus in all of our patients.