Career Development Award recipient, Ashira Blazer, MD, MSCI, rheumatologist at HSS, says, “This award is very important for me and also for the field. One of the things that’s been a big issue in rheumatology, and in medicine as a whole is that we don’t have enough investigators of color. They are less likely to get quality mentorship and less likely to have the ability to stay in the pipeline.”

Postdoctoral award to promote diversity in lupus research recipient, Ruth Fernandez Ruiz, MD, MS,  rheumatologist at HSS, is evaluating the impact of genetic variants in lupus progression. “I am thrilled and honored to be one of the inaugural recipients of the Diversity in Lupus Research Awards,” she says. This funding will be instrumental in continuing my contributions to SLE research and advancing my academic career. I believe that the Diversity in Lupus Research award program by the LRA is a great initiative to address the profound underrepresentation of minorities in biomedical research." 

Read the full article: https://www.the-rheumatologist.org/

The study included five people with severe lupus involving multiple organs — such as the kidneys, heart, lungs and joints — who hadn't responded to standard therapy.

According to Dr. Fernandez Ruiz, “[Lupus] patients had striking clinical improvement after CAR-T cell therapy and experienced clinical remission while off... [the] drugs for the duration of follow-up after CAR-T cell therapy. Despite the limited sample size, it is likely that there will be a role in implementing CAR-T cell therapy in [lupus], particularly for patients with severe disease that is refractory [resistant] to standard-of-care treatments.”

Read the full article at Healthday.com. Additional coverage: USnews.com.

Dr. Blazer received the Career Development Award to Promote Diversity in Lupus Research. She will build upon her preliminary research, which successfully separated lupus nephritis patients from non-lupus nephritis patients through the analysis of the sediment found in the lupus patient urine. The potential clinical use of the non-invasive urine-based test will be confirmed using a larger multi-national SLE patient group with African ancestry, which will provide a new opportunity to learn more about lupus nephritis in a high-risk and understudied patient group.

Dr. Fernandez Ruiz received the Postdoctoral Award to Promote Diversity in Lupus Research. She will investigate how permanent changes in our genetic makeup, called gene variants, influence lupus development and progression. By studying how genetic variants in the PRKG1 gene affect lupus, the research team may identify new biological pathways that could be targeted to reduce the inflammation in lupus patients caused by high levels of interferon alpha.

Read the full press release at Lupusresearch.org.