Natalia Beglova, PhD

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston

2011 Cardiovascular System

Many people with lupus suffer from blood clots. Also called “thromboses,” these clots inside blood vessels interfere with the flow of blood through the body and can cause serious complications. These dangerous clots are more common among people with lupus who have autoimmune antibodies to a particular protein: beta2-glycoprotein I (b2GPI).

With LRI funding, Dr. Beglova will test if a molecule that she has created effectively blocks the activity of this protein in a lupus mouse model.

If this exciting study does in fact uncover a way to interfere with a destructive role of b2GPI, it will open up a whole new avenue for creating medicines to counter damaging and sometimes life-threatening thromboses in lupus.

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