Thank you for your interest in and support of our APS Program! We continue to pursue personalized, proactive treatments for APS with a long-term goal of a cure. We do this work to make lives better, and we hope we can use these emails to build a community of others who want the same. We’re all in this together!

JUNE IS APS AWARENESS MONTH!

We are excited to help spread the news that June is APS Awareness Month! APS is a disease less commonly known by the public, and we value and appreciate the organizations working to change that. We especially want to thank the APS Foundation of America and APS Support UK for all their efforts on social media to support APS Awareness Month!

Non-Criteria Manifestations of Pediatric APS Common Yet ‘Under-Recognized’

Jason Knight, MD, PhD and Jacqueline Madison, MD discuss their recent study on pediatric APS treatments and outcomes, and the need for diagnostic criteria specific to younger patients. Read more.

Congrats to Our UROP Students

Congratulations to Nikoo Alizadeh, Lyndsay Kluge, and Miela Zahavi who completed the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and gained valuable research experience in our laboratories. Read more.

RESEARCH & CLINICAL TRIALS

The Years in Review: 2019-2022

Jason Knight, MD, PhD presents "The Years in Review: 2019-2022" at an international meeting in May 2022. Dr. Knight highlights 20 of the most impactful papers that studied antiphospholipid antibodies and APS from the past three years. Watch the lecture.

Neutrophil Glucose Flux as a Therapeutic Target in Antiphospholipid Syndrome

Ajay Tambralli, MD presents his research "Neutrophil Glucose Flux as a Therapeutic Target in Antiphospholipid Syndrome" at the 2022 Department of Internal Medicine Research Symposium. Watch the video.

APS PROGRAM COMMUNITY Q&A SERIES

What Is APS-Associated Fatigue and What Can I Do to Improve It?

The APS Program Community Q&A Series, written by Ray Zuo, MD, MSCS, was created to answer questions we receive from the APS Program community. In this month’s edition, Dr. Zuo discusses fatigue associated with APS and steps you can take to help control it. Read more.

We are interested in providing additional relevant patient education and would like to hear your thoughts. Share your ideas by sending an email to MichiganANSWERS@med.umich.edu.

Our lab is comprised of many talented and dedicated researchers all working towards the common goal of making the lives of APS patients better. This month we are highlighting one of our research laboratory technicians, Alyssa Harbaugh, BS.

Meet Alyssa Harbaugh, BS

Alyssa Harbaugh, BS is a research laboratory technician and study coordinator in Dr. Jason Knight’s Lab. Alyssa joined the team in January 2020 and transitioned to doing virtual work on the lab's COVID-19 studies during the pandemic. In February 2021, she returned to in-person lab work studying neutrophil metabolism with Dr. Ajay Tambralli. Alyssa graduated from the University of Michigan in May 2021 where she received her BS degree in Biomolecular Science with minors in Creative Writing and Music. Read more.

If one casts their mind back in time, they may recall hearing that my family and I adopted a beagle after he was found roaming the Michigan countryside by a good Samaritan. Sparky just had his unofficial birthday on June 4 and is now 6 years old!

Sparky is not well trained in the tricks and good behaviors that many dogs display. For example, Sparky is not one for playing fetch. If you throw the ball, you would think he would retrieve it and bring it back to you. But on the contrary, Sparky instead takes ball-throwing as a signal to just zoom across the yard in ever increasingly sized circles (Sparky is quite the runner I must admit and delights in showing off how fast he is). As another example, when it is time for Sparky to eat, you would expect him to sit and wait for food to be put in his bowl like a good buddy. But instead, Sparky bounces around making it almost impossible for the feeder to even get to his food bowl! When Sparky is not up to these shenanigans, he enjoys basking in the backyard sun and shade; this last part is pretty normal, I guess.

On a different note, Sparky has seemed to stumble upon a problem lately. He has started spotting SO MANY deer. Of course, he is always absolutely flabbergasted when he encounters these tall beasts. He barks and growls and barks and growls until eventually the deer go away. The deer have seemed to notice something though. As long as they're just in our front yard and Sparky is inside, he can only try to scare them with menacing barks and growls, but not bites. The deer have started taking advantage of this. They will just stand in front of the window not even moving a hair, and this, of course, leaves Sparky in shambles. If that is not bad enough, I have spotted a groundhog prowling around our front and back yards. Luckily, Sparky hasn't seemed to notice this yet. Hopefully, the groundhog leaves before things escalate, like what happened a few Spark Barks ago (see my dad’s August 2021 newsletter for that heart-wrenching tale).

That's all for now. Thanks for coming to my Spark Bark! And again, let’s all wish a very happy birthday to Sparky!