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Friday, 18 December 2015
MRG Christmas Quiz
All the questions will be about the arthritis research published this year.
Put those phones away.... I'm sure that's cheating.....
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Thursday, 10 December 2015
Biomarkers of Remission in RA and Histone Modifications in Chrondrogenesis
Monday, 7 December 2015
Emily Mavin on immuno-modulatory properties of Treg derived extra-cellular vesicles.
ICM Research Seminar
Speakers: Dr Anders Andreasson, Research Associate (Prof A Fisher,
Prof S Ali, Prof J Dark)
Emily Hudson, PhD Student (Prof P Manning, Prof C McNeil, Prof M Wright)
Emily Mavin, Research Associate (Prof A Dickinson)
Venue: Dental Lecture Theatre F, Dental School
Date and Time: Wednesday 9th December 2015, 13.00 pm – 14.00 pm
Dr Anders Andreasson will discuss:
An evaluation of cellular and molecular mechanisms of donor lung reconditioning during clinical ex vivo lung perfusion
Emily Hudson will discuss:
Hepatocytes from Pancreatic Progenitor Cells and their use in Toxicity Screening
Emily Mavin will discuss:
Immuno-modulatory properties of Treg derived extra-cellular vesicles.
Chair: Pier Paoli
Thursday, 3 December 2015
Monday, 30 November 2015
Newcastle identified as a Centre of Excellence by EULAR 2015-2020
We are pleased to announce that once again Newcastle has been identified as a Centre of Excellence by the European League Against Rheumatism.
http://www.eular.org/centres_of_excellence.cfm
EULAR | Centres of excellence Centres of Excellence in Rheumatology. EULAR collates a register of the top research centres in European rheumatology with a three-fold goal: to develop a group of ... |
New Publication
Methylation quantitative trait locus analysis of osteoarthritis links epigenetics with genetic risk.
Rushton MD et al., Hum Mol Genet. 2015 Oct 13. pii: ddv433. [Epub ahead of print]
New Publication
Detecting new microRNAs in human osteoarthritic chondrocytes identifies miR-3085 as a human, chondrocyte-selective, microRNA. Crowe et al., Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2015 Oct 20. pii: S1063-4584(15)01351-5. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2015.10.002. [Epub ahead of print]
Fw: ICM Research Seminar Wednesday 2nd December 2015, 13.00pm Dental Lecture Theatre F
ICM Research Seminar
Speakers: Hannah Sinclair, PhD Student (Prof J Newton, Dr V Kunadian)
Kat Cheung, PhD Student (Prof D Young, Dr M Barter, Dr C Proctor)
Dr David Hill, NC3Rs Fellow
Venue: Dental Lecture Theatre F, Dental School
Date and Time: Wednesday 2nd December 2015, 13.00 pm – 14.00 pm
Hannah Sinclair will discuss:
"Shedding Light (And Sound) On the Pattern of Coronary Artery Disease in Older Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome"
Kat Cheung will discuss:
“ChIP-seq analysis of histone modifications in chondrogenesis”
Dr David Hill will discuss:
“Role of the 3Rs in Cancer Research.”
Chair: Marco Silipo
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Congratulations Ramsay
Ramsay Refaie has received a 1 year fellowship from ARUK which will allow him to continue his work on biomarkers for joint replacement infection and upgrade his project from an MD to a PhD.
Welcome to the 'New' Starters
Oliver Etherington (Research Technician – Supervisors John Isaacs and Amy Anderson) Start Date 10.8.15
Ayotomide Isinkaye (Clinical Research Fellow – Supervisor Fai Ng) will be working with us until March 2016
Silvia Lecci (PhD Student – Supervisors David Young and Drew Rowan) Start Date 28.9.15
Sarah Rice (Research Associate – Supervisors John Loughlin and Louise Reynard) Start Date 5.10.15
Dongxing Zhu (Research Associate – Supervisors John Loughlin and Louise Reynard) Start Date 5.10.15
Ramsay Refaie (Clinical Research Fellow – Supervisor Cat Hilkens) Start Date 20.10.15
Rachel Banks will be joining MRG as our ICM Lab Technician on the 30th November 2015
Also a big hello to Clinical Research Fellow Nadia Howard-Tripp working with Fai on Sjogren's Syndrome and to Research Nurse Helen Hanson who is working with John Isaacs on extending engagement in research as part of the Newcastle Experimental Arthritis Treatment Centre.
Congratulations to Shane and Sandy
Congratulations to Shane Walsh (Supervisors – Kenny Dalgarno and Mark Birch) who had a successful VIVA on Friday 7th August 2015.
Congratulations to Sandy Tse (Supervisor – Drew Rowan) who had a successful MPhil VIVA on Friday 11th September 2015.
Further Publications
Why is it hard to terminate failing projects in pharmaceutical R&D? Peck RW, Lendrem DW, Grant I, Lendrem BC, Isaacs JD. Nat Rev Drug Discov, 2015 14, 1-2.
Gain-of-function STAT1 mutations impair STAT3 activity in patients with Chronic Mucocutaneous Candidiasis (CMC). Zheng J, Veerdonk FL, Crossland KL, Smeekens SP, Chan CM, Shehri TA, Abinun M, Gennery AR, Mann J, Lendrem DW, Netea MG, Rowan AD, Lilic D. Eur J Immunol. 2015 Aug 10. doi: 10.1002/eji.201445344. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26255980
A concept mapping study evaluating the UK’s first NHS generic fatigue clinic. Katie L Hackett, Rebecca L Lambson, Victoria Strassheim, Zoe Gotts, Vincent Deary and Julia L Newton. Health Expectations. August 2015. doi: 10.1111/hex.12405.
Lost in Space: Design of Experiments and Scientific Exploration in a Hogarth Universe. 2015 Lendrem DW, Lendrem BC, Woods D, Rowland-Jones R, Burke M, Chatfield M, Isaacs JD, Owen MR. Drug Discov Today. Drug Discovery Today, 20 (11), 1365–1371
Hurdles in therapy with regulatory T cells. Piotr Trzonkowski, Rosa Bacchetta, Manuela Battaglia, David Berglund, Nathalie Cools, Edward K. Geissler, Silvia Gregori, S. Marieke van Ham, Catharien Hilkens, James A. Hutchinson, Giovanna Lombardi, J. Alejandro Madrigal, Natalia Marek-Trzonkowska, Eva M. Martinez-Caceres, Maria Grazia Roncarolo, Silvia Sanchez-Ramon, Aurore Saudemont and Birgit Sawitzki. Science Translational Medicine. 9th September 2015. Vol 7, Issue 304, pp 304-318
Teaching Examples for the Design of Experiments: Geographical Sensitivity and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 2015 Lendrem DW, Lendrem BC, Rowland-Jones R, D'Agostino F, Linsley M, Owen MR, Isaacs JD. Pharm Stats. In press. November, 2015 DOI: 10.1002/pst.1723
What do they need to know: achieving consensus on paediatric musculoskeletal content for medical students? Sharmila Jandial, Jane Stewart and Helen E Foster. BMC Medical Education (2015) 15:171. DOI 10.1186/s12909-015-0449-4
Tribbles and arthritis: what are the links? Rowan AD, Litherland GJ. Biochem Soc Trans 2015:43(5);1051-6
Friday, 6 November 2015
Another Eclectic Mix: Hepatocytes, scaffolding studies and bile acid receptor signalling.
ICM Research Seminar
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
PAR2 Receptors, Biosensors and Doing Daily Life
Monday, 2 November 2015
Cresta Fatigue Clinic in the Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday features the Cresta Clinic to combat long-term fatigue http://dailym.ai/1RFxnB0 via @MailOnline
Read more from Katie Hackett and colleagues at the Cresta Clinic.
Saturday, 24 October 2015
RA and Diabetes Special
Monday, 19 October 2015
Tackling Fatigue: Multi-Disciplinary Teams at the CRESTA Clinic

Fatigue is a debilitating symptom affecting quality of life and ability to perform daily activities, and is experienced by up to 70% of patients with rheumatological diseases. Many patients do not feel their fatigue is appropriately managed by their medical teams, and no services up until this point enabled patients with chronic
fatigue, irrespective of their longterm physical health condition, to access a multidisciplinary team. The CRESTA Fatigue Clinic was formed in response to this unmet need. It is a novel approach to treating on symptom based,
not disease-based, criteria. It has proved successful and we suggest it is the future of managing fatigue in chronic
diseases.
Rebecca L Lambson, Julia L Newton, Victoria Strassheim, Zoe M Gotts, Vincent Deary, Katie L Hackett 2015 The evolution of the Newcastle CRESTA Fatigue Clinic: a unique NHS multidisciplinary approach to fatigue. Journal of Rheumatology Occupational Therapy, 29, 7-11.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Systemic Autoinflammatory Diseases - 19th October
Speaker: | Dr Sinisa Savic Consultant Clinical Immunologist and honorary Clinical Associate Professor, St James's University Hospital, Leeds |
Venue: |
Baddiley Clark Seminar Room |
Date: | Monday 19th October 2015 |
Time: | 13.00 – 14.00pm
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Dr Sinisa Savic, MBBS, MRCP, MSc, MRCP (London), FRCPath, PhD will present:
Systemic autoinflammatory disorders:
pathophysiology and diagnosis in routine clinical practice
One of his main clinical and research interest is pathophysiology, diagnosis treatment of autoinflammatory conditions. His work in this area was initially focused on the pathogenesis of TNF Receptor periodic fever syndrome. More recently he has evaluated use of anakinra (anti-IL-1 biologic) in diagnosis of patients with undifferentiated (genetically undefined) autoinflammatory syndromes.
For the purposes of this meeting his presentation will include a brief overview of the principles which define the concept of autoinflammation. He will also present some of his work on the pathophysiology of TRAPS. He will talk about the crossover between of autoinflammation and autoimmunity and the role of these processes in the pathogenesis of more common conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Chair: Dr Desa Lilic
Friday, 2 October 2015
Medicine in the Information Age
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Wednesday, 23 September 2015
2016 Rheumatology Research Workshop
Coming soon...
The 36th European Workshop for Rheumatology Research, February 25-27, 2016 in York, United Kingdom.
The Future of Medical Research
Subject: FW: 2015 Jacobson Lecture Friday 25th September - Professor Sir John Savill MBBS FRS PhD, Chief Executive, Medical Research Council
Professor Sir John Savill will be giving the 2015 Jacobson Lecture this Friday 25th September at 5.30pm in the Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building.
Dendritic Cells Special
PI Seminar Series
Speaker: Alexandra-Chloé Villani, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Venue: Baddiley Clark Seminar Room
Date: Wednesday 23rd September 2015
Time: 13.00-14.00
Chloe Villani will present:
'Discovery of dendritic cell sub-populations in human blood
by single cell RNA-sequencing'
Abstract
Following-up a decade of successful disease susceptibility loci identification, the next challenge remains translating these findings to biological understanding of disease. Identifying cells in which these loci are expressed and analyzing individual cells' roles in health and disease are critical to this endeavor. Dendritic cells (DC), which have historically been defined through surface marker analysis, play a critical role in a host's response to pathogens and in the immune responses characterizing cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases. To discover DC subtypes in a more unbiased approach, we used single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) to profile the transcriptome of 1056 single human blood DCs isolated from a healthy individual. While supervised analysis of DC markers effectively classified the 4 known populations (BDCA2+ (IL3RA), BDCA1+ (CD1C), BDCA3+ (CLEC9A), CD16+ (FCGR3A)), unsupervised analysis re-discovered all 4 subsets through a 630-discriminative gene signature in addition to highlighting novel heterogeneity within subsets. Multi-dimensional classification analysis of the first 384 single cells sequenced identified 26 outlier cells not clustering with any of the 4 known subsets. These outliers displayed a unique expression signature and a shared signature with BDCA2+ and BDCA3+ lineages. Using cell surface markers identified by scRNA-seq, we sorted and validated the existence of these cells in 10 additional healthy donors, showing they represent 0.06% of the PBMCs population in the blood and 2-3% of the DC populations across all 10 donors tested. Isolation and profiling of an additional 384 single cell outliers, together with functional experiments, enabled a deeper characterization of their phenotype. Together these analyses provide a comprehensive view of the DC landscape in blood, revealing new signatures and markers for the 4 known populations, novel subtypes within the known populations, and new rare populations of DCs.
Chair: Dr Muzz Haniffa
Thursday, 3 September 2015
Prof Dieter Brömme Cathepsins and Osteoarthritis and Osteoporosis and Others
Speaker: | Prof Dieter Brömme Canada Research Chair in Proteases and Diseases, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Dentistry, Vancouver, Canada |
Venue: | CHANGED to L3.2 |
Date: | Friday 4th September 2015 |
Time: | 12.00 – 1.00pm |
Prof Dieter Brömme will present:
‘Extracellular Matrix Degradation by Cathepsins’
Abstract:
Extracellular matrix degradation is thought to be catalyzed by matrix metalloproteases as they are active at neutral pH, secreted or localized at plasma membranes, and efficient in degrading matrix proteins. However, recent research has revealed that lysosomal acidic cysteine proteases such as cathepsins are critical for bulk matrix protein turnover and that they significantly contribute to various extracellular matrix related pathologies such as osteoporosis, arthritis, atherosclerosis, destructive lung diseases, cancer and skin disorders. Cysteine proteases such as cathepsins K, S, and V represent arguably the most potent mammalian collagenases and/or elastases. The presentation will provide structural explanations for their matrix protein-degrading activities, discuss the role of these enzymes in bone and vascular diseases, and characterize them as effective therapeutic targets. A novel approach of selectively inhibiting the collagenase and elastase activity of cathepsins without interfering with other activities will be discussed using cathepsin K as an example.
Chair: Prof Drew Rowan
Please let Drew Rowan (drew.rowan@ncl.ac.uk) know if you would like to speak to Dieter in the afternoon after the talk.