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The William Harvey Research Institute - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Inflammation

Inflammatory processes represent a fundamental biological function impacting both positively (physiology) and negatively (pathology) on the performance of our body.

Inflammation
  1. WHRI
  2. Research
  3. Inflammation

 

Our research aims to discover the mechanisms behind leukocyte trafficking, organ disease and tissue remodelling with the ultimate goal to develop novel therapeutic approaches. The latter would include small molecule agonists and antagonists, targeting and therapeutic antibodies, nutraceutical strategies to augment patient-specific pro-resolving pathways.

We have expanded our inflammation research impact with the formation of a cross-institute multi-faculty Centre for Inflammation and Therapeutic Innovation (CiTI) establishing a strategic partnership with Arthritis Research UK, UCB Pharma and UCL Partners. During the first phase of financing of CiTI, we have established two Arthritis Research UK Chairs at WHRI. CiTI harness WHRI inflammation research themes, and bring together other sections of the Faculty, with a focus on therapeutic innovation. 

Key research areas

Genomic Medicine and Patient Stratification
Lead researchers: Pitzalis, Bombardieri, Lewis, Mageed, Dalli, Barnes, Mantovani, Montero-Melendez

Vascular Inflammation
Lead researchers: Nourshargh, Rot, Marelli-Berg, Cooper, Voisin, Hobbs, Ahluwalia, Henson, Ackland, Longhi, Thiemermann, Nightingale, Solito 

Therapeutic Innovation and Pharmacology
Lead researchers: Perretti, Mantovani, Marelli-Berg, Nissim, Dalli, Norling, Whiteford, Thiemermann, Yaqoob, Aksoy, Corsiero, Pitzalis, Rot, Chen, Montero-Melendez

Repair and Regenerative Medicine
Lead researchers: Dell’Accio, Perretti, Dalli, Norling, Eldridge, Montero-Melendez

As such our inflammation programme dovetails very well with a large proportion of our efforts in cardiovascular research.

Our translational research is published in Science and Nature journals, Immunity, PNAS, JCI and more, and the excellence of our research is recognised by the award of the Arthritis Research UK Early Arthritis Treatment Centre and an NIHR Translational Research Partnership as well as by high profile individual fellowships, training programmes and more.

  • We lead translational research on rheumatoid arthritis patient stratification, enabling adoption of the cancer model (deep tissue pathotype definition to guide personalised therapy).
  • We pioneered the area of Resolution of Inflammation identifying distinct mediators and receptor targets.
  • We made fundamental discoveries on the process of leukocyte trafficking, with translational relevance to organ transplantation.
  • For REF2014, we have returned outputs published in Nature, Nature Immunology (x3), Nature Cell Biology, J Exp Med (x2), J Clin Invest, J Cell Biol (x2), PNAS (x2), Blood (x3), Circulation Research and several articles in J Immunol, Arthritis & Rheumatism and Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.
  • Several Grant Awards finance our research on the inflammation stream, including – at present - WT/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, European Research Council - Start Grant, Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award, 1 BHF programme Grant, MRC/Arthritis Research UK MATURA Consortium for Stratified Medicine (£4.7m), NIHR Experimental Medicine Evaluation Programme for Stratified Medicine (£1.2million) and a variety of projects from MRC, Arthritis Research UK and other public or private funders. We contribute to the Arthritis Research UK Centre for OA Pathogenesis (lead, Oxford University).
  • Multiple British Heart Foundation and Arthritis Research UK Junior and Intermediate Fellowships and just been awarded two Marie Curie Fellowships. For post-graduate training, we coordinate a Marie Curie ITN with 11 PhD students of which 4 at WHRI/QMUL). At the same time, we host several PhD studentships from Arthritis Research UK, British Heart Foundation, BBSRC and MRC Case studentships. 
  • Centre for Inflammation and Therapeutic Innovation (CiTI) / UCB Pharma DTP.
  • We are linked to the Barts Health NHS Trust Musculoskeletal Clinical Service connecting bench to the clinic.
  • We are active members of the Academic Health Science Centre of UCL Partners, domain of the 3Is (Inflammation, Immunity, Infection).
  • We have a strong partnership with UCL Rheumatology and a joint research strategy effected also through CiTI.
  • Current industrial partners are Genentech/Roche, GSK, MedImmune/AstraZeneca, UCB Pharma and Abbvie and many Biotechs. 

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