IRCAD, the Interdisciplinary Research Center of Autoimmune Diseases was established by the University of Eastern Piedmont (UPO) in 2002 and has its administrative headquarters at the Department of Health Sciences, but also involves members belonging to the Department of Translational Medicine and the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the "Maggiore della Carità" University Hospital of Novara, the Regina Margherita Children's Hospital of Turin (University of Turin) and the S. Croce and Carle Hospital of Cuneo. The Centre aims to develop basic and applied research aimed at studying the mechanisms that cause autoimmune diseases and at developing new diagnostic tests and new therapeutic approaches.