This novel approach resulted in a high performance for the discrimination of RA and the identification of factors with known pathogenetic or therapeutic relevance in RA (for example, STAT1, GBP1, IFNγ, GM-CSF, and its receptor CSF2RB, as well as JAK2, the latter pointing to a JAK/STAT-dependent gene regulatory network). Here, CSF2RB is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.