UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center receives $100,000 gift for lupus research

CHAPEL HILL – A private foundation in Charlotte has donated a major gift to support lupus research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The L. Jack and Ella Shaw Spiers Foundation contributed $100,000 to the UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center to explore the causes and mechanisms of lupus. "The center is tremendously grateful to the foundation for this very important contribution, as it will help provide much-needed resources in our efforts to understand lupus," said Dr. Dhavalkumar Patel, director of the research center. Lupus is one of many immune system disorders known as autoimmune diseases. In these diseases, the immune system turns against parts of the body it was designed to protect, leading to inflammation and damage to various body tissues. "This is a very important time for lupus research," Patel said. "While we have had tremendous successes in our fight against autoimmunity with the development of effective biologic agents, we still have a long way to go." Autoimmune diseases such as lupus have a common mechanism in that the immune system is fighting against itself, Patel added. However, its manifestations vary from person to person due to genetic and environmental influences leading to different responses to medications. "Our goal is to define in a systematic, unbiased manner the differences and similarities between autoimmune diseases and the individuals who are afflicted by them. We would like to be able to define which individuals will best respond to which therapeutics," Patel said. The L. Jack and Ella Shaw Spiers Foundation was established in 1995 in honor of Jack and Ella Shaw Spiers of Charlotte, who died in 1984 and 2002, respectively. Its mission is to fulfill a wide range of socially useful purposes, including grant-making to colleges and universities and support for medical health organizations and special-project needs serving orphaned children. Jack Spiers was a businessman in the Charlotte real estate market and, with his wife, Ella, was a lifelong supporter of philanthropic endeavors statewide. A common room where lupus researchers carry out their studies in the Thurston Arthritis Research Center will be named in honor of the Spiers family. The gift counts toward the university’s Carolina First campaign goal of $2 billion. Carolina First is a comprehensive, multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.