BU Researcher Awarded Lupus Foundation Fellowship
Shi Su, who received her master’s degree from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) Division of Graduate Medical Sciences in May and currently is a research assistant at BUSM’s Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, was awarded a fellowship from the Lupus Foundation of America to conduct research on lupus, an unpredictable and misunderstood autoimmune disease.
Under the mentorship of Tamar Aprahamian, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, Su will conduct her study entitled, The Role of Retinaldehyde and Adipogenesis in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
“I am honored to receive this fellowship,” says Su. “After working on this topic for my thesis project at BU, I discovered that there was a lot more research to be done. With the help of this fellowship, I will be able to work more on the question of how retinaldehyde impacts lupus.”
Su is among the six 2014 recipients of the Gina M. Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship, which seeks to develop the next generation of lupus scientific thought leaders. The fellowship program was established more than 25 years ago by former foundation president, the late Dr. Sergio Finzi, in memory of his daughter Gina, who passed away from lupus.
Su joins the ranks of more than 200 Finzi Student Fellows that the foundation has supported since the program’s inception.