
Beyond Biotech Podcast 44: Lupus Awareness Month
This week’s podcast is sponsored by Lonza.
May is Lupus Awareness Month, and speaking about lupus research with us this week on the podcast are Katherine Tran, senior global market development & marketing manager of the division of proteomics at SCIEX, and Allan Stensballe, associate professor, Department of Health Science and Technology and professor, Faculty Medicine, at Aalborg University in Denmark.
Every May, The American Lupus Foundation rallying the lupus community to make lupus visible.
Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system is unable to distinguish between healthy tissue and foreign invaders. This can cause inflammation, pain, and damage to any organ system in the body. Common symptoms include extreme fatigue, debilitating joint pain, skin rashes and swelling. Although lupus can affect anyone, it is predominantly female and disproportionately affects certain racial and ethnic backgrounds, including Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander.
Due to the mysterious and elusive nature of this disease, many of the symptoms of lupus are not always apparent, and can often lead to years of misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment. And, because many of the symptoms and effects are not always apparent, it can make people with lupus feel misunderstood and ostracized.