Roughly one in five Americans suffer from autoimmune diseases. Under normal conditions, an immune response is triggered against invading microorganisms such as viruses or bacteria. However, in certain cases, immune cells mistakenly attack the very cells that they are meant to protect, which can lead to a variety of autoimmune diseases.
A myriad of external stimuli interact with immune cells and are involved in the inappropriate signaling that results in autoimmune disease. Merrimack currently has an early stage research program applying its Network Biology approach to better understand the underlying mechanisms of certain types of autoimmune diseases. 

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