Fall 2022’s Awards, Appointments & Announcements in Rheumatology

 The third recipient of the Career Development Award, Erika Moore, PhD, University of Florida, Gainesville, is exploring lupus-related vasculitis in women of African vs. European descent. Dr. Moore is primarily a biomedical engineer and became involved in lupus research because of her “lived experience with loved ones who have lupus, a health disparity that disproportionately impacts Black women.” She and her team are using self-identified ancestry as a surrogate marker for understanding differences in type 1 interferon responses in monocytes. 

“We’re hoping this platform will validate a model of vasculitis that occurs in lupus,” she says. 

The researchers are looking for a reduced inflammatory response when blocking the receptors that are aggregated in lupus. Dr. Moore sees a point in the future when it may be possible to partner with other research laboratories and/or drug development companies and use these model systems to interrogate a variety of different targeted compounds.

Although Dr. Moore had no previous training in lupus, she says, “I’ve made a commitment to asking the questions that matter to me in an authentic manner. We can’t just go with the flow; we have to try to break barriers and be better. Having the LRA’s support for my investigations of ancestral contributions to variability in lupus is fantastic.”

Although Dr. Moore had no previous training in lupus, she says, “I’ve made a commitment to asking the questions that matter to me in an authentic manner. We can’t just go with the flow; we have to try to break barriers and be better. Having the LRA’s support for my investigations of ancestral contributions to variability in lupus is fantastic.”

Gretchen Henkel is a health and medical journalist based in California.