The Lupus Research Alliance announced that Joseph Craft, MD, the Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine (Rheumatology) and Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, was granted the 2022 Distinguished Innovator Award, which will provide $1 million in research funding over the course of 4 years, according to a Yale press release. Dr. Craft was honored with the award for his ongoing research into the factors that transform T lymphocytes into cells capable of entering and damaging kidney tissue among patients who have systemic lupus erythematosus. He stressed that in order to develop better treatment options for lupus, “We need to understand how the damage occurs in the first place.” Having spent almost 40 years researching cellular immunology in lupus—as well as in cancer—Dr. Craft hopes to use the award to uncover how T lymphocytes evolve epigenetically and transcriptionally using preclinical lupus models.
May 25, 2023