My research is aimed at understanding the genetic etiology of human autoimmunity and the reasons underlying its ethnic disparities. My experience as a human geneticist spans the areas of molecular, statistical, and population genetics, bioinformatics and genetic epidemiology. My research has focused on the identification of disease-associated genetic and epigenetic risk factors. I have been leading multiple genomic and epigenomic studies of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and systemic sclerosis (SSc), most focused on African Americans.