Autoimmune research to span specialties, agencies. ($450 Million Requested).(National Institutes of Health Autoimmune Disease Coordinating Committee Autoimmune Diseases Research Plan)

WASHINGTON -- Autoimmune disease research is likely to benefit significantly from greater coordination across specialties under a new federally mandated plan.

Members of the National Institutes of Health Autoimmune Disease Coordinating Committee and representatives of numerous autoimmune disease organizations gathered last month to lobby Congress for $450 million to fund the NIH Autoimmune Diseases Research Plan. The Children's Health Act of 2000 required NIH to devise the plan.

"For the first time we will see a united effort on the part of governmental agencies; on the part of individual investigators; and, most notably the coordinated efforts of patient …