The overall goals of our laboratory are to understand why the immune system causes autoimmune diseases and to devise methods to predict and treat them. We develop and use mouse strains that provide models for human diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and epidermolysis bullosa. We use a combination of genetics, molecular biological and cellular immunological tools to dissect the molecular and cellular processes that cause these diseases. Finally, we study the mechanisms that affect the persistence of antibodies and antibody-based therapeutics. The information gained from all of these approaches is then used to devise possible therapeutic approaches that can be translated to human treatments.