Latest Publication: STAT3 and Th17 Responses in the Journal of Immunology

"A negative feedback loop mediated by STAT3 limits human Th17 responses"

Harriet Purvis, Amy Anderson, David Young, John Isaacs, Catharien Hilkens

 

…accepted for publication by the Journal of Immunology.

FW: REMINDER - MRG LAB MEETING

Friday 30th May 2014 at 9.00am in the Baddiley Clark Lecture Theatre.

 

Chair

 

Shereen Al-Ali – PhD Student (PIs – Fai Ng and David Young)

 

Speakers

 

Nishanthi Thalayasingam - Clinical Research Fellow (PI - John Isaacs) Awaiting Title of Talk

 

Philip Brown - Associate Clinical Researcher (PI - John Isaacs) Title of Talk "Biomarkers of Methotrexate Efficacy in Rheumatoid Arthritis"

 

Katie Crossland - Post Doc (PI - Desa Lilic) Awaiting Title of Talk

 

 

Fraser Birrell: Arthritis Pain Management

Children's Rheumatology Specialist Nurses

Listen to our specialist nurses talking about their work with young children.

http://vimeo.com/80462261

Newcastle and the NIHR Joint and Related Inflammatory Diseases Translational Research Partnership

The Joint and Related Inflammatory Diseases NIHR Translational Research Partnership.

 

 

 

 

NIHR BRC Stratified Medicine Symposium 10th and 11th July 2014 London

Stratified Medicine Symposium

10 – 11 July 2014

Lecture Theatre and the Roben’s Suite,

29th and 30th floor, Tower Wing,

Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT

 

Overview

The Stratified Medicine Symposium is being organised and funded by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St. Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, and seeks to bring together leaders in the field who have a specialist interest in stratified medicine.

The symposium aims to highlight recent developments in biomarker discovery and provide opportunities for speakers and the audience to discuss future approaches and collaborations.

It will also consider the opportunities and challenges faced by those undertaking stratified medicine research, and help identify what practitioners require in order to best adopt a stratified approach.

 

Programme at a glance:

·                     Opening session: 2pm Thursday 10^th July

·                     Top and tailed by a Keynote Lecture and Panel Discussion

·                     Extensive opportunities for collaboration and networking

·                     Evening Drink’s Reception on Thursday 10^th July

·                     Poster presentation with prize

Thursday 10^th July

·         An Industry perspective

·         Cancer

Friday 11^th of July

·         Advances in Stratified Medicine from both a UK and an international perspective

·         Measuring the Immune Response

·         The challenges of Big data

·         Cardiovascular disease and imaging

Close of workshop: 5:30pm Friday 11^th July

Course fees

                                                                               

Students                                                                £100

Kings Health Partners staff:                              £100

External Academic:                                             £150

Industry:                                                              £250

 

 

There are 150 places for this event which will be allocated on a first come first serve basis, so please do book as soon as possible!

 

Please see the link to register: http://www.guysandstthomasevents.co.uk/other-training/stratified-medicine-symposium/

 

We have an exciting line up of speakers who are all leaders in the field of stratified medicine. I have attached the preliminary agenda for you.

Please note that we have keynote talks from Professor Sir John Bell and Professor Tim Behrens.

 

We will have a poster presentation for this event, open to all BRCs and BRUs for submission. Please find the abstract submission form attached. In order to present a poster at the Symposium you need to be registered as a delegate.  Posters should be presented as A0 (841mm x 1189mm) portrait size.  Please note that there is limited space available. The deadline for submission is the 30^th May 2014.

 

Medical staff and clinical scientists in career grade posts who are enrolled with one of the Royal Colleges for CPD purposes and attend the meetings will be entitled to receive 8 CPD credits

 

We hope you can join us!

 

Symposium Organising Committee

 

Professor Frank Nestle, Chair of Cutaneous Medicine and Immunotherapy, Kings College London and Honorary Consultant Dermatologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital

Professor Mark Peakman, Head of the Department of Immunobiology and Honorary Consultant Immunologist at Kings College Hospital

Professor Andrew Cope, Chair of Rheumatology at Kings CollegeLondon

Professor Lucilla Poston, Head of King’s Division of Women’s Health, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital

Professor Manuel Mayr, Professor of Cardiovascular Proteomics, King’s College London

Professor Reza Razavi, Director of KHP Research, Consultant Cardiologist and Paediatric Cardiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and Professor of Paediatric Cardiovascular Science at King’s College London

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ARTHRITIS RESEARCH: A CHANCE TO BE HEARD with Arthritis Research UK and VOICENorth

Sign up for Arthritis Research: A Chance To Be Heard at the VOICENorth website.

The Newcastle Early Arthritis Clinic, Freeman Hospital

Transplantation, Arthroplasty, Inflammatory Arthritis

 

 

 

Institute Research Student Seminars

Speakers:  Catriona Barker, PhD student (Transplantation), Andrea Pujol Nicolas, MD student (Musculoskeletal) and Gillian Bell, MD student

(Musculoskeletal)

 

Venue: Seminar room L2.5, 2^nd floor, Leech Building, Medical School

Date and time:  Wednesday 21 May 2014 at 1.00pm

 

Catriona Barker will present:

 

“Chemokine post-translational modification in inflammation”.

 

Transplantation and other stressful and inflammatory conditions result in an increase in chemokine production as well as an increase in reactive species and enzymes capable of modifying such proteins. These modifications profoundly alter both the functional properties of chemokines and our ability to detect them, potentially having important implications for, for example, biomarker studies.

 

Key words:  Chemokines, inflammation, modification

_____________________________

Andrea Pujol Nicolas will discuss:

 

“Removal of biofilms in orthopaedic devices with a novel marine nuclease”

 

Treatment of biofilm-associated infections of joint replacements is challenging as organisms are embedded in an extracellular matrix, which hinders antibiotic penetration.  Degradation of extracellular matrix may therefore be a key factor in dealing with biofilm associated infections. Recent research has shown extracellular DNA is a crucial component of extracellular matrix. This research will study the effect of NucB, a novel DNase secreted from a marine isolate of Bacillus licheniformis on biofilms from isolates of periprosthetic joint infections.

 

Key words: Biofilm, infection, arthroplasty

_____________________________

Gillian Bell will speak on:

 

"Autologous Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells in Rheumatoid and Inflammatory Arthritis”

 

Current therapies for rheumatoid and inflammatory arthritis may non-specifically suppress the immune system with consequences such as increased risk of infection and malignancy. It is desirable to develop specific immune-modulatory therapies to specifically switch off the pathological immune response, inducing immune tolerance in an auto-antigen specific manner.  Autologous Tolerogenic dendritic cells are one such therapy, with promising results already noted in animal models of arthritis. Primary and secondary objectives are to assess safety, tolerability and feasibility of treatment; exploratory objectives seek preliminary evidence of a beneficial therapeutic effect.

 

Keywords: Tolerance, autoimmune, inflammatory arthritis

 

Chair:  Dr Amy Anderson, Research Associate

 

 

 

 

Omenn's Syndrome and Osteoarthritis Talks Friday 16th May 2014

 

Joe Willet - Research Associate (PI - Sophie Hambleton) Title of Talk "Investigating NUDCD3 as a possible cause of Omenn’s syndrome"

 

Craig Bullock – Research Associate (PI – Drew Rowan) - Title of Talk "Role of the serine protease/PAR2 pathway in OA development in vivo"

 

Wang Hui - Post Doc (PI - David Young) - Title of Talk "Tribbles 3 deficiency protects against cartilage damage in a murine model of osteoarthritis"

 

Variety is the Spice of Research: Breast Cancer, Stem Cell Transplantation, Orthodontic Adhesives

 

 

 

Institute Research Student Seminars

Speakers:  Marco Silipo, PhD student (Reproductive & Vascular Biology),

Intan Abd Hamid PhD student (Transplantation) and Hadi Ismail, PhD student

(Oral & Dental Sciences)

 

Venue: Seminar room L2.5, 2^nd floor, Leech Building, Medical School

Date and time:  Wednesday 14 May 2014 at 1.00pm

 

Marco Silipo will present:

 

“Role of HER2 alternative splicing in breast cancer progression”

 

20-30% of breast cancer cells over-express the epithelial growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) resulting in a more aggressive disease. The status of HER2 is clinically assessed in breast cancer patients to assist with treatment decisions that inhibit HER2 activity.   However, clinical assessment for HER2+ breast cancer does not take in consideration functional alternative splice variants of HER2. My project aims to identify different HER2 splice variants that may have an impact on breast cancer biology and to understand the factors that regulate their expression.

 

Key words:  Breast cancer, HER2, alternative splicing

_____________________________

Intan Abd Hamid will discuss:

 

“Long-term outcome of SCID patients who had underwent Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation”

 

Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disorder is a rare disease affecting children with incidence of 1 in 100,000 live births.  It is considered as one of the paediatric emergencies and most patients do not reach their one year old birthday if left untreated. The focus of my research is to explore the long term outcomes of those who have been transplanted and how issues such as donors’ selection, choices of stem cell source and genotype-phenotype association influenced the outcome.   

 

Key words: Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disorder (SCID), Hematopoietic STem Cell Transplantation (HSCT), Long-term Outcome

_____________________________

Hadi Ismail will speak on:

 

“Development of a fluoride releasing acrylic resin for using as an orthodontic adhesive”

 

In fixed appliance treatment, bonding systems are used to secure orthodontic brackets to teeth. 73% of patients experience decalcification around brackets during treatment. Fluoride releasing adhesives are effective in preventing or reducing demineralization around brackets because they provide a fluoride reservoir that does not require patient cooperation. One of the key properties of the orthodontic adhesives is handling, which is dependent on the rheological properties of the adhesive.

 

Key words: orthodontic adhesive, Fluoride release, Acrylic resin

 

 

Chair:  Sophie Cassidy, PhD student (Movement & Metabolism)

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah Teichmann Gene Expression Genomics in T Cells

Professor Sarah Teichmann—Thursday 8 May @ 2 pm, David Shaw Lecture Theatre

Group Leader, EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute & Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Prof. Teichmann is a leading figure in systems biology and one of the most influential scientists of our generation. Her work has been acknowledged by a number of prizes including the Colworth Medal of the Biochemical Society, the Crick Lecture of the Royal Society, the Lister Research Prize and the EMBO Young Investigator Award. Prof. Teichmann is also an editor of Science.

 

"Gene expression genomics in T cells"

T helper cells are central to mammalian adaptive immunity, as the different subtypes modulate the immune system by either activating or repressing it. These cells are easily experimentally accessible as they are non-adherent, and can be studied ex vivo or in vitro. We have used this system to study basic principles of the global regulation of gene expression using next generation sequencing technologies, both at the level of populations of cells (Hebenstreit et al., 2011, Mol Sys Biol; Hebenstreit et al., 2011, Nucleic Acids Res) and at the level of single cells (Brennecke et al., Nature Methods, 2013). Our bulk and single cell RNA-sequencing data has also directed our attention to a potential new signalling system in T helper cells based on steroid production by these cells, illustrating the power of this genomic approach for providing specific biological insights (Mahata et al., Cell Reports, in press).

 

Faculty contact:  Diego Miranda-Saavedra (diego.miranda-saavedra@ncl.ac.uk), ext. 8590

 

Sponsored by: LICOR

 

 

The Newcastle Shared Decision Guides for Rheumatoid Arthritis

The Newcastle Shared Decision Guides were developed to aid patients discuss treatment options with clinicians and healthcare professionals.

http://sdm.rightcare.nhs.uk/pda/rheumatoid-arthritis/

The Newcastle Shared Decision Guides for Osteoarthritis of the Knee

The Newcastle Shared Decision Guides were developed to aid patients discuss treatment options with clinicians and healthcare professionals.

http://sdm.rightcare.nhs.uk/pda/osteoarthritis-of-the-knee/

Shared Decision Guide for Osteoarthritis of the Hip

The Newcastle Shared Decision Guides were developed to aid patients discuss treatment options with clinicians and healthcare professionals.

http://sdm.rightcare.nhs.uk/pda/osteoarthritis-of-the-hip/

Regenerative Medicine: Wednesday 7th May

 

 

 

 

 

Institute Research Seminar

 

Guest speaker: Professor Stuart Forbes

(Professor of Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine)

(University of Edinburgh)

 

Venue:  Lecture theatre E, ground floor, Dental School

Date and time:  Tuesday 7 May 2014 at 4.00pm

 

Professor Forbes will discuss:

 

"Can we improve liver regeneration for clinical benefit?"

Professor Stuart John Forbes will discuss the control of liver regeneration in the damaged liver and highlight potential ways to improve this.

 

Key words:  Stem Cells / Liver Regeneration / Cell Therapy

__________­­___________

 

Biography:  Professor Stuart J Forbes, MB CHB, PhD, FRCP (Edin)

 

Professor Forbes is Professor of Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine at Edinburgh University. He is Associate Director of the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Director of the UKRMP Hub for the Stem Cell Niche. His Clinical work is as a consultant Hepatologist is based at the Scottish Liver Transplant Unit, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. His clinical interests are all forms of adult liver disease and he has a special interest in patients who require or have had a liver transplants for severe liver disease.

 

His research group is developing techniques to stimulate the liver's own regeneration and reduce the amount of scar tissue that forms in the liver in response to injury using stem cells as therapy. This work spans from the research bench to the clinic.

 

Website:  http://www.crm.ed.ac.uk/research/group/liver-stem-cells-regeneration

 

If you would like to meet Professor Forbes during his visit, please contact Prof John Kirby (john.kirby@ncl.ac.uk)

 

Chair:  Prof John Kirby

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Science, Cytokines and Cell Signalling

Chair

 

Fiona Gee - Post Doc (PI - John Loughlin)

 

Speakers

 

Dennis Lendrem – Project Manager - Title of Talk "Lost in Space:  Scientific Exploration in a Hogarth Universe"

 

Chun Chan – Research Associate (PI - Drew Rowan) Title of Talk "CYTOKINE-INDUCED c-fos REGULATES MATRIX METALLOPROTEINASE 13 in HUMAN OSTEOARTHRITIS via ACTIVATING FACTOR-3"

 

Anja Krippner – Research Associate - Title of Talk "The modulation of regulatory T cells by TNF-receptor 1 and 2 signalling"