Lupus Research Alliance Awards More Than $2 Million to Study the Power of Lifestyle Interventions

Newly funded studies will investigate how targeted lifestyle approaches can improve quality of life for people living with lupus

NEW YORK, Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lupus Research Alliance (LRA), the world's largest private funder of lupus research, today announced it has awarded more than $2 million in funding through its 2026 Mechanistic Clinical Award program to advance research on innovative lifestyle interventions — including ginger supplementation, physical activity, and a whole health online program — for people living with lupus.

Lupus impacts millions of people worldwide and presents differently in each person. Symptoms, severity, progression, and response to treatment can vary vastly. Despite meaningful advances in targeted therapies, many individuals continue to experience fatigue, fluctuating disease activity, medication-related toxicities, and organ damage. These challenges underscore the importance of developing complementary, low-risk strategies that can be safely layered into treatment regimens.

"Lifestyle interventions hold great promise for improving outcomes in lupus, but research in this area remains chronically underfunded," Kari Fischer, PhD, Scientific Program Officer at the Lupus Research Alliance. "From diet to mental health, social connection, and more, these interventions deserve serious biological exploration to illuminate their underlying effects. At the Lupus Research Alliance, we are committed to pursuing every promising avenue that could improve clinical outcomes and quality of life for those living with this disease."

The Mechanistic Clinical Award program supports innovative pilot studies designed to advance precision medicine and deepen understanding of how therapies work, with a specific focus for this year on lifestyle interventions. Following a highly competitive review process, three selected recipients will receive up to $750,000 over three years – leveraging small, nimble studies that can provide the necessary evidence base to eventually launch larger trials.

The 2026 recipients are:

• Jason Knight, MD, PhD, Regents of the University of Michigan
  • Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that play an important role in driving inflammation in lupus. They do this by releasing spider web-like structures known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which can trigger additional harmful immune reactions. Dr. Knight will test whether ginger supplementation can reduce harmful neutrophil activation in people with lupus, as ginger-derived compounds are known to have neutrophil-modulating effects. He will measure changes in immune cell activity and inflammation markers in the blood to better understand the biological effects of this type of supplementation in lupus. This work could help lay the foundation for simple, patient-friendly, lifestyle-based strategies that may complement existing lupus treatments.
• Jennifer Rogers, MD, Duke University
  • Pain is a major challenge for many people living with lupus. While inflammation can play a role, pain is also influenced by factors such as stress, mood, sleep, and social experiences. Dr. Rogers will evaluate a 12-week online lifestyle program called Whole Health Empowerment for Lupus (WHEEL) to better understand how it may reduce pain by influencing how the brain processes pain signals. By integrating brain imaging, clinical data, and patient experiences, this study seeks to uncover the biological and psychological mechanisms behind chronic pain in lupus, helping guide new approaches to improving pain management and quality of life.
• Jose Rubio, MD, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Constant fatigue is one of the most debilitating and common symptoms of lupus, yet there are currently no medications that effectively treat it. Research suggests that problems with mitochondria — the structures that produce energy within cells — and excess fat stored in muscles may contribute to fatigue and reduced physical function in people with lupus. Dr. Rubio will test whether a personalized, home-based, and video-supervised high-intensity intermittent exercise program can improve physical function in people with lupus through its effects on mitochondria and muscle fat depots. The goal is to uncover mechanisms that affect muscle health to inform new ways to reduce fatigue for people living with lupus.

To learn more about the program and selected projects, visit LupusResearch.org/Funded-Research. 

About Lupus

Lupus is a chronic, complex autoimmune disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In lupus, the immune system, meant to defend against infections, produces autoantibodies that mistake the body's own cells as foreign, causing other immune cells to attack organs such as the kidneys, brain, heart, lungs, and skin, as well as blood and joints. Ninety percent of people with lupus are women, most often diagnosed between the ages of 15-45. Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander people are disproportionately affected by lupus.

About the Lupus Research Alliance

The Lupus Research Alliance is the largest non-governmental, non-profit funder of lupus research worldwide. The organization aims to transform treatment by funding the most innovative lupus research, fostering scientific talent, and driving discovery toward better diagnostics, improved treatments and, ultimately, a cure for lupus. Because the Lupus Research Alliance's Board of Directors funds all administrative and fundraising costs, 100% of all donations go to support lupus research programs.

For more information or to donate to lupus research, visit the LRA at LupusResearch.org and on social media at: X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

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SOURCE Lupus Research Alliance