The Lupus Research Alliance, the largest private funder of lupus research, said it has formed a philanthropic venture fund called Lupus Ventures to help advance treatments and diagnostics for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), its manifestations, and related autoimmune conditions.
The organization said the fund is designed to support higher-risk, early-stage companies and bridge what it described as the gap between promising science and commercialization. Lupus Ventures will consider investments across modalities and stages, and portfolio companies are expected to receive both capital and strategic support informed by the Lupus Research Alliance’s scientific and industry experience.
The launch comes as lupus drug development has accelerated after years of limited progress. The Lupus Research Alliance pointed to multiple recent approvals following Benlysta in 2011, including Saphnelo and Lupkynis in 2021 and Gazyva in October 2025, alongside a growing pipeline that it said includes more than 140 lupus therapies currently in clinical trials from more than 120 companies.
Nishant Rastogi was named the fund’s inaugural managing director. The Lupus Research Alliance said Rastogi has more than a decade of biotech venture capital and private equity experience and previously served as vice president and head of transactions at New Rhein Healthcare Investors, after earlier roles at Broadview Ventures and Fidelity Investments. The organization also said he has advised several disease research foundations on venture fund formation and the role of philanthropy in accelerating new medicines.
Lupus Ventures will be overseen by an investment committee that includes Rastogi, Lupus Research Alliance President and CEO Albert T. Roy, and Ira Akselrad, chair of the Lupus Research Alliance board and president and CEO of The Johnson Company. Teodora Staeva, PhD, the organization’s chief scientific officer, will serve on the fund’s scientific advisory board. The Lupus Research Alliance said it plans to recruit additional experts for the investment committee, scientific advisory board, and investment team in 2026.
The Lupus Research Alliance said it has awarded more than $284 million through more than 650 research grants to date, and that its clinical affiliate, Lupus Therapeutics, is involved in roughly 25% to 30% of active clinical trials. Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues and can affect organs including the kidneys, brain, heart, lungs and skin, as well as blood and joints; the organization said roughly 90% of people with lupus are women, most often diagnosed between ages 15 and 45, and that Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander people are disproportionately affected.
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“The Lupus Research Alliance has spent years building a research engine that supports every part of the scientific process — from basic and translational research through clinical development. Launching Lupus Ventures is the natural — and critical — next step. It allows us to strategically deploy resources and catalyze solutions for people living with lupus, ensuring promising ideas don’t sit on a shelf simply for lack of funding.”
Albert T. Roy, President and CEO, Lupus Research Alliance
“I am grateful to the Lupus Research Alliance for the opportunity to build this platform. As the world’s only investment fund dedicated to SLE, we are uniquely positioned to support companies developing potential therapies in this area to benefit people living with lupus globally. The combination of recent scientific advancements and investor and industry interest makes this a perfect time to launch the Fund.”
Nishant Rastogi, Managing Director, Lupus Ventures
