Dr. Christopher Lessard is a Professor of the Genes and Human Disease (GHD) Research Program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF). His research team leverages high throughput bulk and single cell sequencing technologies, statistical genetics, bioinformatic analyses, and molecular biology approaches to study the molecular mechanisms that drive Sjögren’s disease and other autoimmune diseases. Dr. Lessard has built a diverse research team of scientists, as well as a network of local, national, and international collaborators with common interests in understanding the genetic, genomic and epigenomic factors that influence autoimmune disease pathology. As part of this, he currently leads the international Sjögren’s Genetics Network (SGENE), which includes collaborators from more than 50 institutions with a common goal to understand the genetic, genomic, and epigenomic factors that influence Sjögren’s disease pathology. He is also an investigator involved in the Accelerated Medicines Partnership (AMP) Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases (AIM) Program, which aims to use spatially aware technologies to define subphenotypic and tissue-specific differences between Sjögren’s patients. To date, the ongoing research by Dr. Lessard, his colleagues, and his research team are performing deep explorations of the epigenetic dysregulation that occurs in the peripheral blood and other autoimmune disease-target tissues, and integrating bulk, single cell, and spatial multiomic data to deconstruct the genetic, genomic, and epigenomic mechanisms that drive complex and heterogeneous autoimmune disease mechanisms.