LEAD Day 2026 Announces Eric Topol as Award Recipient
GAI is proud to announce LEAD Day 2026 (Lectures, Empowerment, and Awareness in Autoimmune Disease), an annual event that brings together leading scientists, healthcare professionals, advocates, and the autoimmune disease community to explore emerging discoveries shaping the future of autoimmune disease research.
LEAD Day 2026 will take place on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at the Scripps Seaside Forum in La Jolla, California.
Attendees can expect scientific discussions, audience Q&A sessions, a keynote lecture by internationally recognized physician-scientist Eric Topol, M.D., presentation of the Walter and Jean Boek Leadership in Research Award, and a community reception.
The Future of Autoimmune Disease Research
The scientific panel, “AI and Multi-Omics: Building a New Era of Autoimmune and Chronic Disease Research,” will examine how artificial intelligence and multi-omics technologies, including genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and other large-scale biological data, are helping researchers better understand disease mechanisms, identify new therapeutic targets, and accelerate precision medicine.
The discussion will be followed by an audience question-and-answer session, giving attendees an opportunity to engage directly with experts working at the forefront of biomedical research.
Eric Topol to Deliver Keynote Lecture
Eric Topol, M.D., is Executive Vice President of Scripps Research and founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. A clinically active cardiologist and internationally recognized physician-scientist, he has published more than 1,300 peer-reviewed articles and is among the world’s most highly cited researchers in medicine. He is the author of four bestselling books on the future of medicine, including Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again and Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity, and publishes the weekly Ground Truths newsletter on emerging biomedical advances.
Walter and Jean Boek Leadership in Research Award recipient Eric Topol, M.D., will give a keynote lecture titled “Super Agers and the Immune System.”
Following the keynote, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a live Q&A session before the presentation of the award.
Bridging Scientific Discovery and the Autoimmune Community
Autoimmune disease research continues to advance rapidly, yet many important scientific discoveries remain within research communities long before they reach the people living with these conditions.
LEAD Day was created to help bridge that gap by bringing researchers and the broader community together to discuss emerging science, answer questions, and explore how new discoveries may influence the future of autoimmune disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Additional event details, including registration information, will be announced as they become available.Registration is free, but space is limited!
Learn More
Ahead of LEAD Day 2026, readers interested in this year’s themes may also enjoy several recent Ground Truths articles by Eric Topol that explore emerging advances in artificial intelligence, immunology, and autoimmune disease research.
Patrick Hsu: How Is AI Catalyzing Life Science? features a conversation on how AI, genome editing, large language models for biology, and digital biology are accelerating scientific discovery and reshaping biomedical research.
