The Psoriasis Foundation’s seed grant program emphasizes innovative psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis research projects in genetics, immunology or clinical research focused on understanding the mechanism of the disease. The program is designed to provide researchers with funding to generate preliminary data that can be used in grant applications to the National Institutes of Health.
“Funding these types of research projects is an integral part of our research and advocacy strategies,” said Gail Zimmerman, president and CEO of the Psoriasis Foundation. “These grants will help promising researchers further understand the underlying causes of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, and help us come closer to a cure.”
The grant recipients are Dr Andrew Blauvelt, a professor at Oregon Health & Science University; Dr Kristina Callis, an instructor at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center; Dr Shane Curran, a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University; and Dr Carl Edwards, an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center.
The research projects undertaken by these academics include work on discovering how the molecule Il-23 is involved in the development and maintenance of psoriasis; study into the disease genetics; research into understanding the environment of joints in psoriatic arthritis; and investigations on how specific molecules and cells work together to produce inflammation in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.