UTHSC News: Marko Radic, PhD, Committed to Making a Difference for Patients, Awarded Lupus Insight Prize

Ten years ago, Marko Radic, PhD, laced up his walking shoes to participate in the Virginia Davis Memorial Walk/Run for Lupus, a fundraiser to support the Lupus Foundation of America. An associate professor in the UT Health Science Center's Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry, Dr. Radic had spent his research career up to that point focusing on basic immunology and the mechanisms that lead to autoimmune diseases. He never suspected that morning in Overton Park would spur a major shift in his research approach.

But walking alongside and interacting with lupus patients and their families, Dr. Radic was struck by how severely the disease affected their daily lives. "The most common form of lupus, systemic lupus erythematosis, can affect nearly all your organ systems: cardiovascular, respiratory, GI, your joints, your skin, your musculature," he said. He was also disheartened when explaining his work to them. "No matter how much a scientist tries to consider lay language and explain things from first principles, and no matter if a patient perfectly understands all the basic biology questions, they still approach things from their own point of view. Their main concern is they have an incurable illness and a reduced life expectancy. I realized some of our basic research wasn't translating to them or really impacting their daily struggles."

His experience at the event motivated him to switch his approach to impact patient health and well-being directly.

"At the time, I was following an observation that was done by researchers in Pennsylvania. Dr. Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania had introduced a cell therapy that was very good at eliminating cancerous B cells (a type of immune cells thought to be responsible for lupus manifestations). In many autoimmune diseases you can find antibodies in the plasma that react with your own tissues. So eliminating B cells seemed like a good way to test the role of B cells in lupus. We proposed to do that in two different mouse models of lupus, and set out the experiments with funding from the Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) in New York City."

Read more at our UTHSC news site.