An Indian-origin professor and his two colleagues at the University of Houston have got a USD 600,000 private grant for their path-breaking research to develop a new treatment for lupus. The Target Identification in Lupus grant from the Lupus Research Alliance has been given to Chandra Mohan, endowed professor in the university's biomedical engineering department, and his research team members Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz. Lupus is a complex autoimmune disease that is difficult to diagnose, treat and defeat. Only one treatment has been approved in nearly 60 years.

"Lupus nephritis (kidney disease) is one of the most serious complications of lupus. With the TIL grant support, Chandra Mohan, MD, PhD, University of Houston will build on his existing discoveries to evaluate a potential new therapeutic target for lupus nephritis," the health organisation said. Only seven lupus researchers across the country were asked to carry out these tasks and the grant will address fundamental questions in lupus research, remove barriers to new treatments and possibly find a cure for lupus and its complications, it said. ¿Lupus is quite common among African-Americans and Hispanics here in US, and also common in Asia¿ Mohan told PTI.