Johnny Pippins, an online graduate student at the University of Idaho and an inmate at the Anamosa State Penitentiary, is an L. H. Baker Center intern for the summer of 2019. Under the guidance of Baker Center Director Dan Nettleton, Mr. Pippins is applying statistical methods to discover genes differentially expressed among patients with different types of lupus. The project builds on research published by Rai et al. (2016) to compare lupus patients with different autoantibody specificities in hopes of better understanding the molecular genetic mechanisms of lupus and developing improved, individualized treatment regimes. The project has special significance for Mr. Pippins because his mother died in 2010 after living with lupus for 20 years. Mr. Pippins long-term goals include the pursuit of a PhD in Biostatistics.