Dr. Michela Locci, a young scientist in the lab of Dr. Shane Crotty convinced the Arthritis National Research Foundation (ANRF) to fund her proposed rheumatoid arthritis project with a $100,000 research grant. Locci, an instructor in the laboratory of LJI professor Shane Crotty, Ph.D., wants to study a previously unexplored link between a highly specialized pool of immune cells and the presence of autoantibodies, which contribute to severe forms of the disease.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that affects around 1.5 million adults in the United States and many of them fail to respond to currently available therapies. The grants awarded by ANRF are specifically designed to bridge that gap and bring relieve to those patients who are not helped by available treatment regimes by providing “initial research funding to brilliant, investigative scientists with new ideas to cure arthritis and related autoimmune diseases.”
The brilliant young scientist with the winning research proposal is pictured at the top.
