Autoimmune Disease Prevention Center (ADPC)

The Autoimmune Disease Prevention Center (ADPC) was developed in 2024 under director Kevin Deane, MD/PhD with the mission to advance prevention in autoimmune diseases.

The ADPC aims to provide central organization for support and from across a wide variety of disciplines are able to participate autoimmune disease prevention efforts, including implementation of observational trials, clinical trials, translational and basic research in order to advance the prevention of autoimmune diseases.  

The ADPC’s initial focus of activities, as well as the composition of its Core Operations Team and Advisory Board, will be on the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This is because this is a disease that has many established features that support prevention.

These include:

• RA affects approximately 1% of the population making it one of the most common chronic autoimmune diseases; further, RA leads to substantial decreased quality of life for those who have developed disease, as well as high personal and societal financial costs. Therefore, prevention for RA would lead to major improvements in personal well-being and public health.
• There have already been scientific advances in RA that support prevention. These include an ability to predict with some accuracy who may develop RA in the future, as well as an understanding of some of the pathophysiologic processes that drive disease development. There have also been several clinical prevention trials for RA that have been completed. Thus far, these trials have not identified a highly effective preventive intervention; however, the fact that these trials have been completed supports that additional trials will be feasible in the near future.
• The CUAMC, the ADPC’s inaugural Director Kevin Deane and other Core Operational Team members (e.g. Drs Striebich, Demoruelle and Marie Feser) have extensive experience in studying the natural history of RA, and have led the first prevention trial for RA in the USA. The ADPC will be able to leverage these experiences to rapidly advance efforts in prevention for RA that furthermore will ultimately be applicable for a wide range of autoimmune diseases.