Advances in lupus and Sjögren's syndrome: a tribute to Josep Font.

Dr. Josep Font (Barcelona, 1953-2006) devoted his professional career to the care of patients with systemic autoimmune diseases (SAD). In 1995, he created the Department of Autoimmune Diseases at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, a pioneering unit in Europe specifically dedicated to the clinical management of these patients. The research output of Dr. Font has been prodigious, with a total of over 500 scientific articles published in 25 years, and was especially focused on the clinical and immunological characterization of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS). This review briefly analyzes some of the main contributions of Josep Font to our current knowledge about these diseases. In SLE, the research was centered on the epidemiological and clinical characterization, the study of cardiovascular and vasculitic involvements, and the investigation of the etiopathogenic role of the innate immunity. In primary SS, basic research conducted by Dr. Font contributed to a better understanding of the autoimmune etiopathogenesis of the disease, while the clinical research expanded our knowledge about the systemic and immunological expression of the disease and its frequent association with lymphoma, other SAD, and chronic viral infections.