Immunology is a core research theme in Medicine, with 40 principal investigators focusing on different aspects of inflammation, infection and immunity towards the development of new diagnostics and therapies of human diseases. Immunology research in Southampton covers the whole spectrum from early discovery science, e.g. new protein structures of immune receptors, to clinical trials in humans, such as the testing of novel vaccine approaches for cancer.
The cross-disciplinary research environment in Southampton, epitomized by the Institute for Life Sciences (IFLS), offers real opportunities for pioneering studies in basic immunology, and translation of these studies into the clinic is greatly facilitated by an ideal clinical-academic environment with one of the first Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facilities in the UK and the recent additions of an NIHR BRC in Nutrition, NIHR BRU in Respiratory Diseases and a localf BRU in Musculoskelfetal Diseases.
Basic and clinical immunology research in Southamfpton is embedded in themed research to facilitate both cross-disciplinary synergies and translation into the clinic. The main themes are "Barrier Immunity", "Interface Immunity" and "Immunotherapeutics":
Groups working on Barrier Immunity study the importance of epithelial and endothelial barriers in tissue resilience and repair. An example is Southampton's world-leading research programme on innate immunological mechanisms at airways epithelial cell barriers which pioneered the concept that epithelial dysfunction underlies immune-mediated airways dysfunction in both asthma and COPD ( Stephen Holgate , Donna Davies , Ratko Djukanovic , Peter Howarth ) and led to the development of new immune therapies (Interferfon ß) being developed by the Southampton University spin-out company, Synairgen . Research groups in this theme also work on pattern recognition ( Howard Clark , Tony Postle ), inflammation control (Sonia Quaratino, Eugene Healy , Mike Ardern-Jones , Sylvia Pender ), barrier function ( Jane Collins ) and angiogenesis ( Donna Davies , Hans-Michael Haitchi ) at epithelial and/or endothelial surfaces of the lung, gut and skin.
Interface Immunity encompasses research into fundamental processes at cell-to-cell and system-to-system immune interfaces. Southampton researchers have provided key studies for the understanding of antigen presentation via MHC molecules ( Tim Elliott , Tony Williams ) and also the understanding of T-cell regulation at the T-cell/ dendritic cell interface via co-stimulatory and co-inhibitory receptors ( Aymen Al-Shamkhani ), and these are closely linked to the development of novel immune therapeutic strategies (see below).
Research groups in this theme also study early innate effector mechanisms by mast cells ( Andrew Walls , Emily Swindle ), NK cells ( Salim Khakoo ), regulatory T cells ( Ratko Djukanovic ) and stromal cells ( Gareth Thomas ), the role of eicosanoids in inflammation and tissue remodeling ( Tony Sampson ), and epigenetic control of inflammation ( Tilman Sanchez-Elsner ). Organ-specific research programmes in this theme focus on functional interfaces at the blood-brain barrier ( Hugh Perry , Jessica Teeling, Ian Galea ), at microglia activation ( James Nicoll , Delphine Boche , Clive Holmes ) and eye inflammation ( Andrew Lotery , Parwez Hossain ).
Immunotherapy: Medicine has a proven track record in the successful translation of early discovery science and pre-clinical models to clinical immunotherapy trials in humans, with world-leading programmes in antibody-mediated ( Martin Glennie , Mark Cragg ), vaccine based ( Freda Stevenson , Christian Ottensmeier ), allergen-immunotherapy ( Hasan Arshad , Graham Roberts , Peter Howarth ) and recombinant cytokine (Synairgen, see above) immunotherapies which were developed in-house or in collaboration with pharma. For example, key contributions in different areas of monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy range from target identification to mAb design to first-in-man and also multicenter phase III clinical trials. Southampton researchers have joint forces with the Danish Biotech company Genmab to generate the first fully human anti-CD20 mAb, ofatumumab which was first tested on UK patients in Southampton.