Tuesday 29 November 2016

Coming Soon! Therapeutic Tolerance Workshop 27-30th June 2017

 

Therapeutic Tolerance Workshop 27-30th June 2017

 

Confirmed speakers

R Germain (Bethesda, USA)

Keynote address: Imaging the immune system

 

G Hollander (Oxford, UK)

The thymus – an update

 

E Shevach (Bethesda, USA)

Regulatory T cells

 

F Powrie (Oxford, UK)

Manipulating the microbiome for tolerance induction

 

D Sansom (London, UK)

What does CTLA4 really do?

 

S Khleif (Augusta, USA)

Title TBC

 

T Johnson (Augusta, USA)

Trials and tribulations in breaking tumour tolerance

 

PP Tak (Stevenage, UK)

Immunomodulation by vagal nerve stimulation

 

H Jonuleit (Mainz, Germany)

Tolerogenic targets in regulatory T cells

 

I Anegon (Nantes, France)

Novel mechanisms in tolerance induction

 

J Isaacs (Newcastle, UK)

Update on the RA-MAP consortium

 

M Hernandez-Fuentes (London, UK)

Biomarkers in transplantation tolerance

 

G Kassiotis (London, UK)

Endogenous retroviruses and the breakdown of immune tolerance

 

G Lombardi (London, UK)

Tregs in kidney transplantation

 

R Thomas (Brisbane Australia)

A platform for peptide therapeutics

 

G Schett (Erlangen, Germany)

Autoantibodies as tolerance biomarkers

 

M Trucco (Pittsburgh, USA)

Tolerogenic therapies for type I diabetes

 

A Cope (London, UK)

Treating very early autoimmunity

 

M Rosenzwajg (Paris, France)

Low dose IL-2 therapy

L Chatenoud (Paris, France)

Anti-CD3 – an update

 

A Coles (Cambridge, UK)

Alemtuzumab in Multiple Sclerosis

 

M Ehrenstein (London, UK)

Anti-TNF as a tolerogenic therapy

 

A Mellor (Newcastle, UK)

IDO and tolerance – where are we now?

 

D Howie (Oxford, UK)

How FoxP3 regulates immune metabolism

 

L Graca (Lisbon, Portugal)

Tolerance to Factor VIII

 

H Waldmann (Oxford, UK)

Novel antibodies with improved properties?

 

J van Laar (Utrecht, The Netherlands)

Hematologic transplantation as a therapy for autoimmunity

 

A Radbruch (Berlin, Germany)

Restoring B cell tolerance

 

F van Wijk (Utrecht, The Netherlands)

Resetting T cell regulation in JIA

 

M Bernardo (Milan, Italy)

Mesenchymal for tolerance induction

 

D Wraith (Birmingham, UK)

Peptide therapy in MS and other conditions

 

L Klareskog (Stockholm, Sweden)

Evolution of an autoimmune disease

 

P Trzonkowski (Gdansk, Poland)

Treg therapies in type I diabetes

 

C Mauri (London, UK)

Regulator B Cells

 

K Kishimoto (Massachusetts , USA)

Tolerogenic nanoparticles

 

R Wilkinson (Cambridge, UK)

Title TBC

 

D Vignali (Pittsburgh, USA)

Title TBC

 

M Peakman (London, UK)

Peptide therapy in diabetes

 

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Chondrocytes and Mass Spec Double Bill Special :-)

The MRG Lab Meeting will be taking place on Friday 25th November 2016 at 9.00am in the Baddiley Clark Seminar Room.
 
Chair
 
Sarah Rice (Research Associate - Supervisors John Loughlin/Louise Reynard)
 
Speakers
 
Matt Barter (Research Associate - Supervisor - David Young) Title of Talk "lncRNA ROCR regulates SOX9 expression and chondrocyte development"
 
Edith Serrano (Research Associate - Supervisor - John Isaacs) Title of Talk "SWATH-Mass Spectrometry as a tool for the identification of RA biomarkers"

Tuesday 22 November 2016

People

Welcome to:


Joseph Dudman (PhD Student - PI Kenny Dalgarno) Start Date 22.09.16

Benjamin John Thompson (PhD Student - PI Sophie Hambleton) Start Date 26.09.16

Leonie Schittenhelm (new RACE PhD Student - Catharien Hilkens) 26.09.16

Niloufar Hojatoleslami (PhD Student - PI Kenny Dalgarno) Start Date 28.09.16

Kegan McColgan-Bannon (PhD Researcher - PI Kenny Dalgarno) Start Date 01.10.16

Kamran Ali Mirza (Research Associate for PSS Research - PI Fai Ng) Start Date 01.10.16

Sakura Brandi (BSc/MSci Student for PSS Research – PI Fai Ng) Start Date 01.10.16

Harrison Threadgold (MSci Biomedical Sciences – PI Kenny Dalgarno) Start Date 04.10.16

Nicole Kattner (PhD Student – PI Kenny Dalgarno) Start Date 11.10.16

Gemma Vidal (PhD Student – PI Kenny Dalgarno) Start Date 04.10.16

Adrian Falconer (Research Assistant – Drew Rowan) Start Date 02.11.16

 A sad farewell to:

Ramsey Refaie (Clinical Research Fellow - PI Catharien Hilkens) 19.10.16

Rachel Harry (Research Associate – PI John Isaacs) 31.10.16

 And widespread rejoicing at the return of Julie Diboll.

Sjogren's Syndrome Book

And congratulations to Professor Wan-Fai Ng - editor of the new book on Sjogrens Syndrome.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sjogrens-Syndrome-Oxford-Rheumatology-Library/dp/0198736959

www.amazon.co.uk
Buy Sjogren's Syndrome (Oxford Rheumatology Library) by Wan-Fai Ng (ISBN: 9780198736950) from Amazon's Book Store. Free UK delivery on eligible orders.


Congratulations All Around

Nadia Howard-Tripp (Clinical Research Associate - Fai Ng) won an ‘Outstanding Abstract Award’ at the Oklahoma conference (5 awarded in total of $500) for the abstract ‘Fatigue is Associated with Lower Levels of Pro-inflammatory Cytokines in Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome’, which was presented as a poster. 

Nadia Howard-Tripp also received one of five ‘Trainee Travel Awards’ ($1000) to attend this conference and present an oral abstract on ‘Clinical Phenotyping in Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome’.

Helen Hanson (Senior Research Nurse for John Isaacs) returned from her researcher visit to Holland after picking up a travel award and funding for a fellowship application.

Congratulations to Mohsen El Shahali who had a successful VIVA on Monday 24th October 2016 (Supervisors Fai Ng and Jaap van Laar)

Publication Alert!

Some more papers...


Ontology in Immunology.  C Hilkens and P Lord.  Transplantation, Vol 100, No 10 pp 2014-2015 October 2016.  doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000001445. PubMed PMID:

27547864.


Dexamethasone and Monophosphoryl Lipid A-Modulated Dendritic Cells Promote.  Maggi J, Schinnerling K, Pesce B, Hilkens CM, Catalán D, Aguillón JC.


Antigen-Specific Tolerogenic Properties on Naive and Memory CD4(+) TCells. Front Immunol. 2016 Sep 19;7:359. PubMed PMID: 27698654.


Tolerogenic dendritic cells generated with dexamethasone and vitamin D3 regulate rheumatoid arthritis CD4(+) T-cells partly via TGF-β1.  Anderson AE, Swan DJ, Wong OY, Buck M, Eltherington O, Harry RA, Patterson AM, Pratt AG, Reynolds G, Doran JP, Kirby JA, Isaacs JD, Hilkens CM.  Clin Exp Immunol. 2016 Sep26.doi: 10.1111/cei.12870. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 27667787.


Use of structured musculoskeletal examination routines in undergraduate medical education and postgraduate clinical practice – a UK survey.  Kenneth F Baker, Sharmila Jandial, Ben Thompson, David Walker, Ken Taylor and Helen E Foster.  BMC Medical Education (2016) 16 pp 288


‘An investigation into the prevalence of sleep disturbances in primary Sjogren’s syndrome: A systematic review of the literature’. Hackett, K.L., Gotts, Z., Ellis, J., Deary V., Rapley, T., Ng W-F., Newton, J.L., Deane, K.H.O. (2016) Rheumatology (Oxford) (In press).


EULAR/PreS Standard and recommendations for the transitional care of your people with juvenile onset rheumatic diseases.  Seza Ozen, Helen Elisabeth Foster, Janet McDonagh, Sylvia Kamphuis, Karin B. Berggren, Philomine van Pelt, Daniel  Clemente, Carine Wouters, Jenny M. Waite-Jones, R. Tattersall, Ruth Wyllie, Simon Stones, Alberto Martini, Tamas Constantin, Susanne Schalm, Berna Fidanci, Burak Erer, Erkande Mirkaya, Loreto Carmona. annrheumdis-2016-210112.R2 (in press).  



 

Wednesday 12 October 2016

ADVANCE NOTICE: The Fourth International Workshop on Therapeutic Tolerancing


 

Therapeutic Tolerance Workshop 27-30th June 2017

Confirmed Speakers


R Germaine, (Bethesda, USA)

Keynote address: Imaging the immune system

 

G Hollander (Oxford, UK)

The thymus – an update

 

E Shevach (Bethesda, USA)

Regulatory T cells

 

F Powrie (Oxford, UK)

Manipulating the microbiome for tolerance induction

 

D Sansom (London, UK)

What does CTLA4 really do?

 

S Khleif (Augusta, USA)

Title TBC

 

T Johnson (Augusta, USA)

Trials and tribulations in breaking tumour tolerance

 

PP Tak (Stevenage, UK)

Immunomodulation by vagal nerve stimulation

 

H Jonuleit (Mainz, Germany)

Tolerogenic targets in regulatory T cells

 

I Anegon (Nantes, France)

Novel mechanisms in tolerance induction

 

J Isaacs (Newcastle, UK)

Update on the RA-MAP consortium

 

M Hernandez-Fuentes (London, UK)

Biomarkers in transplantation tolerance

 

G Kassiotis (London, UK)

Endogenous retroviruses and the breakdown of immune tolerance

 

G Lombardi (London, UK)

Tregs in kidney transplantation

 

R Thomas (Brisbane Australia)

A platform for peptide therapeutics

 

G Schett (Erlangen, Germany)

Autoantibodies as tolerance biomarkers

 

M Trucco (Pittsburgh, USA)

Tolerogenic therapies for type I diabetes

 


L Chatenoud (Paris, France)

Anti-CD3 – an update

 

A Coles (Cambridge, UK)

Alemtuzumab in Multiple Sclerosis

 

M Ehrenstein (London, UK)

Anti-TNF as a tolerogenic therapy

 

A Mellor (Newcastle, UK)

IDO and tolerance – where are we now?

 

D Howie (Oxford, UK)

How FoxP3 regulates immune metabolism

 

L Graca (Lisbon, Portugal)

Tolerance to Factor VIII

 

H Waldmann (Oxford, UK)

Novel antibodies with improved properties?

 

J van Laar (Utrecht, The Netherlands)

Hematologic transplantation as a therapy for autoimmunity

 

A Radbruch (Berlin, Germany)

Restoring B cell tolerance

 

F van Wijk (Utrecht, The Netherlands)

Resetting T cell regulation in JIA

 

M Bernardo (Milan, Italy)

Mesenchymal for tolerance induction

 

D Wraith (Birmingham, UK)

Peptide therapy in MS and other conditions

 

L Klareskog (Stockholm, Sweden)

Evolution of an autoimmune disease

 

P Trzonkowski (Gdansk, Poland)

Treg therapies in type I diabetes

 

C Mauri (London, UK)

Regulator B Cells

 

K Kishimoto (Massachusetts , USA)

Tolerogenic nanoparticles

 

R Wilkinson (Cambridge, UK)

Title TBC

 


For further information please contact lisa.tait  @ ncl.ac.uk


 


Friday 16 September 2016

ICM Special Seminar - Monday 19th Sept - Immune Mapping in Ankylosing Spondylitis - Translational Medicine

 


 

Speaker:         Dr Tony Kenna, Queensland University of Technology

Venue:   Baddiley Clark Seminar Room

Date:       Monday 19th September, 2016

Time:       16.30 -17.30

 

 

Dr Tony Kenna will present:

 

“Immune mapping” in ankylosing spondylitis: challenges of translating GWAS to functional immunology

 

 

SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE AND VISION

My research career has focussed on human immunology and functional characterisation of novel genes in autoinflammatory disease. For the past 6 years I have been particularly focused on pathways of inflammation in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and related immune-mediated diseases. My research productivity in this area is impressive, of my 18 publications since 2011 14 have been in the area of AS research. I work closely with clinicians and have established a curated biobank of cells, serum, RNA, DNA and gut biopsies from over 400 AS patients and 200 healthy controls with which to interrogate altered immune function in patients relative to healthy individuals. I have also used this biobank to investigate fundamental biology of the immune response. I lead a highly skilled and motivated group of research professionals and students.

 

My work enriches our fundamental knowledge of human immunology and will likely lead to identification of novel therapeutic candidates.

 

 

Chair: Professor John Isaacs

 

 

 


 

Monday 5 September 2016

LATEST NEWS

PAPERS


Publication:

Simulated interventions to ameliorate age-related bone loss indicate the importance of timing. Proctor, CJ; Gartland A. Frontiers in Endocrinology, Bone Research (2016) doi: 10.3389/fendo.2016.00061


Decoding the regulatory landscape of ageing tissue engineered musculoskeletal constructs using genome-wide DNA methylation and RNASeq.  Peffers MJ, PhD; Whysall K; Collins J; Fang Y;  Rushton M; Loughlin J; Proctor C; Clegg PD. PLoS ONE 11 (8): e0160517. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0160517


Paper accepted for publication:

Minimum information about tolerogenic antigen-presenting cells (MITAP): a first step towards reproducibility and standardisation of cellular therapies. Phillip Lord, Rachel Spiering, Juan C. Aguillón, Amy E. Anderson, Silke Appel, Daniel Benitez-Ribas, Anja ten Brinke, Femke Broere, Nathalie Cools, Maria Cristina Cuturi, Julie Diboll, Edward K. Geissler, Nick Giannoukakis, Silvia Gregori, S. Marieke van Ham,Staci Lattimer, Lindsay Marshall, Rachel A. Harry, James A. Hutchinson, John D. Isaacs, Irma Joosten, Cees van Kooten, Ascensión López Díaz de Cerio, Tatjana Nikolic, Haluk Barbaros Oral, Ljiljana Sofronic-Milosavljevic, Thomas Ritter, Paloma Riquelme, Angus W. Thomson, Massimo Trucco, Marta Vives-Pi, Eva Martinez-Caceres, Catharien M.U. Hilkens.  (2016). PeerJ 4:e2300; DOI 10.7717/peerj.2300


Infection-Related Death among Persons with Refractory Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.  Mario Abinun, Jonathan P. Lane, Mark Wood, Mark Friswell, Terence J. Flood, Helen E. Foster.  Emerging Infectious Diseases.  www.cdc.gov/eid.  Vol 22, No 10, October 2016.

www.cdc.gov
Volume 22, Number 9—September 2016 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC



NEW STAFF


Sarah Cope (Master’s in Medical Education - PI Helen Foster) Start Date 16.08.16

Joseph Dudman (PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering & Systems - PI Kenny Dalgarno) Start date to be confirmed

Leonie Schittenhelm (PhD Student - PI Catharien Hilkens) Start Date 26.09.16 


LEAVERS

Chun Ming Chan (Research Associate - Desa Lilic/Drew Rowan) 31.08.16

Colin Shepherd (Research Associate - John Loughlin/Louise Reynard) 31.08.16


OTHER NEWS

Dr Christopher Duncan has been successful in obtaining a 1 year Research Fellowship from the British Infection Association.



Monday 22 August 2016

NEW STARTERS

We would like to welcome the following people below:


Ian Herron who is a Student from Sunderland University will be with us from 4.6.16 for 8 weeks and his Supervisor is Sophie Hambleton. 


Andreia Mariha de Sousa Almeida who is a Visiting Researcher will be with us from 1.7.16 for 1 month and her Supervisor is Kenny Dalgarno.


Maria Addlororata Bonifacio who is a PhD Student from University of Bari in Italy will be with us from 17.6.16 for 4 months 

Monday 25 July 2016

MHRA presentation on Medical Apps

The regulation of medical apps - a presentation from the MHRA.

Translational research increasingly leads to the production of apps, aimed either at patients or clinicians.


What are the regulatory considerations?

Speaker: Valerie Field, Interim Group Manager, Devices, MHRA
Venue: David Shaw Lecture Theatre, Medical School
Time: 12.30pm
Date: Tuesday 26 July


Wednesday 20 July 2016

Latest Papers


Heterozygous STAT1 gain-of-function mutations underlie an unexpectedly broad clinical phenotype: an international survey of 274 patients from 167 kindreds.  Julie Toubiana, MD1,2,3,4, Satoshi Okada, PhD5,6, Julia Hiller, MD7,8,*, Matias Oleastro, MD9,*, Macarena Lagos Gomez, MD10,*, Juan Carlos Aldave Becerra, MD11,*, Marie Ouaché-Chardin, MD12,*, Fanny Fouyssac, MD13,*, Katta Mohan Girisha, MD14,¥, Amos Etzioni, MD15,¥, Joris Van Montfrans, MD16,¥, Yildiz Camcioglu, MD17,¥, Leigh Ann Kerns, MD18,¥,, Bernd Belohradsky, MD19, ¥, Stéphane Blanche, MD2,4,¥, Aziz Bousfiha, MD20,¥, Carlos Rodriguez-Gallego, MD21,¥, Isabelle Meyts22,¥, Kai Kisand, MD23,¥, Janine Reichenbach, MD24,¥, Ellen D Renner, MD19,#, Sergio Rosenzweig, MD25,#, Bodo Grimbacher, MD26,# , Frank L van de Veerdonk, MD27,#, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, M7,8,#, Capucine Picard, MD2,3,4,28,#, Laszlo Marodi, MD29,#, Tomohiro Morio, MD30,#, Masao Kobayashi, MD6,#, Desa Lilic, MD31,#,  Joshua D Milner, MD32,#, Steven Holland, MD25,#, Jean-Laurent Casanova, MD2,3,5,33,@ and Anne Puel, PhD2,3,5,34,@ , on behalf of the International STAT1-GOF study group† European Journal of Immunology

Reduced TCR-dependent activation through citrullination of a T-cell epitope enhances Th17 development by disruption of the STAT3/5  balance.  Christopher Tibbitt, Jane Falconer, Jeroen Stoop, Willem van Eden, John H.Robinson and Catharien M.U. Hilkens European Journal of Immunology

Drug breakthrough offers hope to arthritis sufferers: qualitative analysis of medical research in UK newspapers.  Hanson, H., O'Brien, N., Whybrow, P., Isaacs, J.D. and Rapley, T. Health Expectations. (2016), doi: 10.1111/hex.12460

Trends in paediatric rheumatology referral times and disease activity indices over a ten-year period among children and young people with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: results from the childhood arthritis prospective Study.  Flora McErlane, Helen E. Foster, Roberto Carrasco, Eileen M. Baildam, S.E. Alice Chieng, Joyce E. Davidson, Yiannis Ioannou, Lucy R. Wedderburn, Wendy Thomson and Kimme L. Hyrich.  Rheumatology (2106) 55:1223-1234.

Tuesday 19 July 2016

MRG Lab Meeting - 22.7.16

The MRG Lab Meeting will be taking place on Friday 22nd July 2016 at 9.00am in the Baddiley Clark Seminar Room.
 
Chair
 
Sarah Rice (Research Associate - Supervisors - John Loughlin and Louise Reynard)
 
Speakers
 
Joe Willet (Research Associate - Supervisor - Sophie Hambleton) Title of Talk "Investigating the molecular mechanisms of a novel form of Omenn’s syndrome"
 
Dimitra Tsompani (PhD Student - Supervisors - David Young and Drew Rowan) Title of Talk "The Role of Histone Deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) in Chondrogeneisis and in Osteoarthritis"
 
Matt Wood (PhD Student - Supervisor – Cat Hilkens) "Do synovial dendritic cells contribute to the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis?"
 
 
 
 

Friday 15 July 2016

OTHER NEWS

And in other news...


Dipika Asher has just completed her second year at Newcastle. Started MRG on         13th June 2016 and finished on 24th June 2016.  Dipika was shadowing Sarah Rice and under the supervision of John Loughlin.

Eleanor Wheeler has just completed her first year at Sheffield.  Started MRG on 20th June 2016 and will be finishing on 5th August 2016.  Eleanor is working with Maria Tselepi and under the supervision of John Loughlin.

               

Good luck Belinda!

Belinda Njumo has completed her 2 month period in MRG as a part-time volunteer Researcher under the supervision of Drew Rowan.  Belinda will be starting her PhD in October 2016 so we wish her well for the future.

Latest Grants


Dennis Lendrem was awarded a BBSRC Strategic Training Award to develop a Virtual Experimentation Simulation Program for Biological and Biotechnological Researchers with Tom Howard (Biological Sciences) and Matt Linsley (Maths&Stats).

David Young has been awarded a Programme grant from The Dunhill Medical Trust - MicroRNAs are key mediators of cartilage destruction in osteoarthritis: in vivo, in vitro and in silico studies - 5 years - £998,965.
Investigators: David Young, Daryl Shanley, Ian Clark (UEA) and Tamas Dalmay (UEA)               

Congratulations to Helen and Desa


Helen Hanson (Senior Research Nurse for John Isaacs) has just won the annual NUTH Nursing and Midwifery prize for Research and Audit.

Dr Desa Lilic has been invited to join the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Immunology.