A statement from the university said a person suffering from Lupus was unable to ward off infections as his/her immune system could not distinguish between foreign bodies and their own healthy tissues.
An auto-immune attack results, causing fatigue, joint pain, skin rashes and damage to kidneys, lungs, the brain and blood vessels.
The university's head of immunology, Professor Tom Gordon,said identifying and tracking down the molecular signature of "rogue clones" could mean earlier diagnosis and better treatments.
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"Identifying and isolating the signature of these rogue clones can provide information about whether a drug therapy is working or not.”
The joint author of the research, Dr Jing Jing Wang, said a mass spectrometry instrument was used to identify the molecular signatures of antibodies which cause the disease.
“The ultimate goal of our work is to measure response to treatment and to design therapies to remove rogue clones in individual Lupus patients.”
Prof Gordon said up to 20,000 Australians suffered from Lupus.
