FSR awards 3 early career grants to advance sarcoidosis research
Each scientist will receive $150K as part of Early Career Fellowship Grant
The Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research (FSR) has awarded $450,000 to three scientists to support research projects related to sarcoidosis diagnosis, treatment, and care.
This funding comes through FSR’s Early Career Fellowship Grant, which is designed to provide scientists early in their career with resources for advancing sarcoidosis research. As in past years, each recipient will receive $150,000.
“FSR is thrilled to support this exciting and diverse research,” Mary McGowan, president and CEO of FSR, said in a foundation press release. “These extraordinary projects not only represent the future of sarcoidosis research, but also bring us closer to a world where sarcoidosis can be more easily diagnosed, better treated, and ultimately cured.”
In sarcoidosis, small clumps of immune cells, called granulomas, accumulate, causing inflammation and damage. It’s not known why they form, but any tissue can be affected, resulting in a range of possible symptoms.
Researching sarcoidosis
One winner is William Lippitt, PhD, soon to be an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. His research will focus on pulmonary sarcoidosis, the most common form of the disease where granulomas affect the lungs.
Diagnosing and monitoring pulmonary sarcoidosis relies on imaging techniques like CT scans to visualize the lungs and look for signs of the disease. Lippitt will use his funding share to develop analytic tools to improve CT imaging approaches for pulmonary sarcoidosis that can be used across diverse populations and institutions.
“I want to create tools that can help address technical and practical obstacles to reliable and reproducible imaging-based research in pulmonary sarcoidosis, and the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research is empowering me to build them,” Lippitt said. “I am immensely grateful for this opportunity.”
Juan Carlos Quijano-Campos, of King’s College London, will focus on improving life quality for people with cardiac sarcoidosis, where the disease affects the heart.
Sarcoidosis can lead to substantial impairments in health-related quality of life, but current tools for measuring this impact aren’t specific to the cardiac form of the disease. Quijano-Campos, a doctoral candidate and research fellow, is leading the development and validation of the first patient-reported outcome designed specifically for cardiac sarcoidosis. Called CARD-SARC, it’s intended to improve disease management and life quality for patients.
“This award recognizes the collaboration between patients, clinicians, and researchers to improve sarcoidosis care,” Quijano-Campos said. “It is a meaningful step forward in highlighting quality of life and patient-centered tools as priorities in both clinical practice and research.”
The final awardee is Paul Ettel, MD, who’s pursuing a PhD at the Medical University of Vienna. Ettel’s work is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie granuloma formation in sarcoidosis. His work zeroes in on how neutrophils, a type of immune cell, and the metabolism of arginine, an amino acid that influences immune function, contribute to disease processes. Knowing better how granulomas form could help scientists develop new sarcoidosis treatments.
“The fellowship will empower me to further explore the role of cellular metabolism in driving disease progression in sarcoidosis, with the aim of identifying novel metabolic targets for therapeutic intervention,” Ettel said.
The Early Career Fellowship Grant is now in its seventh year and is one of several funding mechanisms supported by FSR. Since its founding in 2000, FSR has given more than $8 million toward sarcoidosis research.
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