LEAD Day—Lectures, Empowerment, and Awareness for Autoimmune Disease Day—is the culmination of a year’s worth of momentum: a day when discovery steps beyond the lab bench and into the lives it’s meant to change, connecting science directly with patients, advocates, and the broader autoimmune disease community.
Conceived by La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Board Director and Global Autoimmune Institute (GAI) Executive Director and Founder Sandy Boek Werness, J.D.—whose leadership has reshaped the future of autoimmune disease research and philanthropy—LEAD Day is built around a scientific award lecture honoring transformative leadership in autoimmune disease research, followed by dynamic, community-focused programming that bridges discovery and real-world impact.
LEAD Day stands as the pinnacle of the Walter and Jean Boek Seminar Series, a year-round program at LJI made possible through GAI’s long-term philanthropic commitment. Led by Sam Myers, Ph.D., the Global Autoimmune Institute Assistant Professor at LJI, the Boek Seminar Series sparks vital exchange among scientific leaders—and LEAD Day transforms that spark into a rallying point for urgent, compassionate, patient-centered progress for sustainable autoimmune disease solutions.
The inaugural LEAD Day, held on March 6, 2025, honored TIME100 Health Pioneer Georg Schett, M.D., Rheumatologist at the University Hospital Erlangen in Germany, as The Walter and Jean Boek Leadership in Research Award recipient. His groundbreaking research on CAR T-cell therapy has redefined what’s possible in treating autoimmune disease. Dr. Schett’s work represents the kind of bold, translational science LEAD Day was designed to elevate—a seismic step forward in a field urgently in need of breakthroughs.
