Researcher Spotlight: Marina K. Holz, PhD, MPH, DrPH, FASBMB
For more than 25 years, Dr. Marina Holz has been asking questions, exploring ideas, and looking for answers as a scientist. For the past 15 years, she has dedicated that curiosity to the LAM community.
So, what keeps Marina coming back to LAM research?
For one, she is drawn to diseases that primarily affect women and LAM as a fascinating scientific challenge. LAM touches many parts of the body and can be difficult to understand, which means there are many opportunities to ask important questions and uncover new answers.
“LAM is a challenging, complicated, multi-system disease,” Marina says. “It offers a lot of avenues for investigation and testing ideas that could be applicable to many scientific areas outside of LAM.”
Her time working in LAM has also given Dr. Holz opportunities to explore science from many different angles. She has worked in basic science, been part of a successful clinical trial, studied the social aspects of LAM, and helped identify research priorities directly from the LAM community.
Those experiences have been meaningful for her, not only as a researcher, but as a member of the greater LAM community.
Dr. Holz has been part of The LAM Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) since 2018 and served as chair for the past three years. In that role, she helped strengthen the Foundation’s support of research. She worked to make the grant review process more efficient; encourage research in areas the community needs most, bring patients and community members into the grant review process, and make sure the SAB includes a wide range of scientific expertise.
It is a great example of what makes the LAM research community so special. No one person can solve LAM alone. And, for Marina, that goal is more than finding a cure.
“We want to find a cure for LAM,” she says, “but we also want to make sure that patients with LAM live long and fulfilling lives.”
That means working toward a future without LAM while also finding ways to help people living with LAM have the best possible quality of life today.
We are so grateful to Dr. Holz for her many years of dedication to LAM research, and for the leadership and curiosity that she brings to our community. Her story is also a reminder of just how much can happen when passionate scientists and a determined community come together.
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