The Global Autoimmune Institute (GAI) is bringing researchers and doctors together to help patients with autoimmune disease.
GAI is a nonprofit led by LJI Board Member Sandra Boek Werness, JD, a lawyer with a solid understanding of medical research. Boek Werness’s parents were pioneers in public health research, and her own career includes serving as Vice President of Northern Virginia Pathology. In 2013, after years of advocating for a loved one with a devastating autoimmune disease, Boek Werness took the helm of an existing nonprofit to create GAI.
“There is a lack of understanding around autoimmune diseases—and a lack of successful diagnoses and treatments,” says Boek Werness, who serves as GAI Executive Director.
Under Boek Werness’s leadership, GAI has become a major contributor to autoimmune disease education, physician and patient outreach, and research. In 2024, GAI granted six-figure funding to support autoimmune disease research at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI).
Boek Werness says GAI and LJI share a goal: to shed light on the fundamental drivers of autoimmune diseases.
“It’s important to fund research into the initiation of autoimmune disease,” says Boek Werness. “We need to understand what’s happening before these diseases start to differentiate and cause damage in different organs.”
“We need to understand what’s happening before these diseases start to differentiate and cause damage in different organs.”
– Sandra Boek Werness, JD, GAI Executive Director
GAI granted LJI Global Autoimmune Institute Assistant Professor Sam Myers, Ph.D., generous lab funding that supports his efforts to investigate how molecular modifications alter immune cell behavior. Dr. Myers was also granted his new title of Global Autoimmune Institute Assistant Professor. LJI Postdoctoral Fellow Greet Verstichel, M.D., Ph.D., of the Cheroutre Lab, received GAI funding to further examine how T cell development can lead to autoimmune diseases.
GAI support hasn’t stopped there. The organization has also stepped up to provide underwriting for patient resources, including Life Without Disease and Live from the Lab programming. GAI has also underwritten comprehensive programming at LJI for scientists and stakeholders in the autoimmune disease patient community.
Boek Werness recently visited LJI to meet with Drs. Myers and Verstichel. She says she was impressed by the work ethic of the scientists, as well as LJI’s team atmosphere.“LJI scientists are looking around the next corner and figuring out how to collaborate with each other—with the added benefit of having advanced technology to do their work,” says Boek Werness. “The GAI Board Members and I are really thrilled with the research LJI is doing.”
