The Masonic Medical Research Institute in Utica recently received a $200,000 grant from the Lupus and Allied Diseases Association which will support four innovative research projects.
Executive director Maria Kontaridis spoke about the research they are conducting and what steps they are looking at to help combat the disease.
Kontaridis moved from Boston back in 2018 to join the Masonic Team, bringing her knowledge in cardiovascular and autoimmune disease, including Lupus. Kontaridis and her team at the institute are researching Lupus to come up with therapeutics and ways to combat the autoimmune disease.
“We know that there’s a genetic predisposition in most patients and we know that there’s usually a secondary trigger whether that’s a virus or some environmental factor, we’re not really clear,” Kontaridis said. “So we’re not really sure about a cure at this stage since we don’t understand how this disease develops in the first place.”
She says they do believe they can find ways to slow the progression of the disease.
“Or potentially reverse the devastating effects of this disease in individuals who suffer from Lupus,” Kontaridis said.
The recent grant of $200,000 from the Lupus and Allied Diseases Association will allow them to not only continue their research, but conduct the first sets of experiments to prove that the approach they are taking is working.
“Once we have the feasibility, that proof of principal if you will, we’re able to apply for bigger grants through the National Institutes of Health to allow us to get more resources to continue those projects and hopefully, eventually move them into clinical trials so we can figure out how they help most effectively in patients,” Kontaridis said.
It’s more than just research for her. Her extensive work in Lupus stems back to her mother.
“In 1986, my mother was diagnosed with Lupus. It was a time when people didn’t really understand the disease or what caused it. She sadly passed away after 26 years in 2009,” Kontaridis said.
Kontaridis says she is proud of the work that her team is doing.
“So I have been very fortunate from the faculty all the way to the staff that support my research in my own laboratory to have a really amazing group of talent that have come all over the world to work specifically here for us,” Kontaridis said.
She is honored to be a woman not only in leadership but also in STEM.
“I think women are motivated and driven. And as we’ve changed over and become I think a lot more independent thinking, you’ll see a lot more women taking leadership positions and I think they’ll make a big difference going forward in the community around them,” Kotaridis said.
Pushing the institute’s mission forward by conducting research to get to therapeutics.
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