Lupus in sits at a critical crossroads. The steady progress made in the last century have provided us with deep insights into the nature of this disorder with autoantibodies, chemotherapy, interferon, complement, DNA nets, anti-cytokine therapeutics, and other advances allowing nearly all of the afflicted in modern healthcare settings to avoid the lethal consequences of this disorder, so frequent previously.

Now, new and newish technologies, study designs, informatics, and data repositories offer the promise of rapid progress. Our lupus community of scientific investigators is pursuing the details of genetics & genomics, environmental etiologies, metabolomics, mechanisms of disease from many perspectives, epidemiology, and the microbiome, using the new tools from applied mathematics, computer science, DNA sequencing, massively parallel study designs to obtain insights previously beyond the reach of human inquiry.

Scientific progress is moving so quickly that no human intellect is able to master all that is happening with respect to lupus. This Research Topic will provide perspectives on the state-of -the-art research and its importance in 2023 and 2024. We look forward to a promising future when the major etiologies of lupus will be known, new therapies will be efficacious with few rare dangerous side effects, prediction tests will be able to identify those at high risk for disease, the discriminating capacity to help those destined for more severe disease, and, best of all, be able to identify those at high risk for lupus long before any clinical sign of disease is present. We are optimistic that the advances in research promise to radically change the experience of those afflicted with Lupus.

Our hope is that the contributions to this Research Topic will accelerate this progress and be a record of the transition to much better outcomes for lupus patients.

This special research topic will serve as a freely accessible resource curated by some of the most impactful investigators in the field, bringing together the latest key findings and historical advances of this decade for the global Lupus community.

The initiative is led and edited by Field Chief Editor John B Harley and will focus on recent advances, current challenges and future perspectives in the field. Submissions to this topic are by Invitation Only and should be within the scope of the journal.

The Research Topic will accept Original Research, Reviews, Methods, Opinion and mini-reviews.

Impact

Frontiers in Lupus

Disease Mechanisms in Lupus

Epidemiology of Lupus

Clinical Research and Treatment in Lupus

Translational Immunology and Pre-Clinical Models