Centre for Inflammation Research Away Day

The away day incorporated the popular Flash Talk competition as well as group leader presentations on their research and career pathways. We also heard from a range of our research support staff on strategy and culture (Florence Gohard), finances (Paul Fitch) and communications and engagement (Jane Wright & Robin Morton). Sonja Vermeren shared an update on the important blood resource centre that IRR researchers regularly use for their research. The primary objective of the CIR Blood Resource is to help facilitate research projects examining the critical controls involved in regulating the onset, progression and resolution of inflammation, to lay the foundation for novel therapeutic approaches for infectious and inflammatory human diseases.

David Dockrell (Director of the Centre for Inflammation Research) excitingly shared CIR’s three new research themes: 

• Infection and Immunity (co-leads: Thamarai Dorai-Schneiders and Jürgen Schwarze)
• Damage and Repair (co-leads: Prakash Ramachandran and Sonja Vermeren)
• Experimental Medicine (co-leads: Till Bachmann and Jonathan Fallowfield)

Combining chemistry 

The IRR Chemistry Hub greatly supports our academics, magnifying our impact to accelerate the translation of molecules to humans. Head of the IRR Chemistry Hub, Marc Vendrell introduced his team and discussed their work developing fluorescent probes. These probes allow the visualisation of biological processes within cells and the body, and can show how cells and drugs function.

Chemistry Hub team member Ewan Calder discussed his work on finding new chemical tools using a technology called the RaPID system, which helps discover specific peptides (building blocks of proteins) that can tightly bind to and affect other proteins of interest in the body. This system lets us search through an enormous variety of these peptides very quickly. They are 1 of only 3 labs in the UK that can do this. 

Innovation

Kev Dhaliwal discussed a new innovation career pathway, centrally run by Edinburgh Innovations, helping support early- and late-stage innovators at the University. Kev also talked about GAIL (Generative AI Laboratory), a University-wide initiative dedicated to researching all aspects of Generative Artificial Intelligence in society.

Kynos Therapeutics co-founder Damien Mole shared an honest and insightful account of the highs and lows of launching and growing the spinout company alongside co-founder Scott Webster. He offered valuable lessons in resilience and persistence for anyone considering the leap into commercialisation.

Senescence and ageing

Joy Edwards-Hicks, who set up her IRR research group in 2024 presented her research. Joy's lab looks at how age-related changes in metabolism affect the way T cells—key immune cells—send signals to other cells to help resolve inflammation. Understanding this can reduce age-associated inflammation and may lead to ways to boost immune function in older adults. 

David Baird presented on his research looking into biomarkers of cell senescence (cell ageing that prevents regeneration) and patient outcomes in kidney disease. He’s found that the protein ‘clusterin’ is a biomarker in urine that can highlight senescence in the kidney and can predict kidney disease progression. 

CIR and Robert O Curle lab-affiliated researcher Chloe Stanton, discussed her research investigating common and rare forms of age-related retinal degeneration. She’s looking to identify genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying cellular dysfunction in the retina that may be targets for future therapy. 

Monocytes and neutrophils

Ananda Mirchandani presented her work which looks at how critical illness, especially when it causes low oxygen levels in the bone marrow, affects the production of monocytes, a type of immune cell. 

Clare Muir, a veterinary pathologist shared her research looking at how neutrophils (a type of white blood cell that engulfs pathogens to form small sacs called phagosomes), control the fate of these phagosome e.g. in degradation and processing. Clare can do this in live, transparent zebrafish. 

Thank you to all the speakers and organisers who contributed to a fantastic day of insight into CIR research and collaboration.

Global medicine

The importance of global medicine was also highlighted. New CIR group leader Stephen Gordon, discussed his research looking at controlled human infection studies in UK and Malawi. Stephen has focused on pneumococcal challenge models, including work in the UK with elderly people and individuals with asthma, and more recently in Malawi with healthy adults and people living with HIV.

Stephen also talked about MARVELS (Malawi Accelerated Research in Vaccines, Experimental and Laboratory Systems), his research group in Malawi, and encourages anyone with an interest in human challenge models, vaccine trials, and respiratory immunity, to work with him in Africa, an “opportunity-rich rather than resource-poor” country. 

Till Bachmann presented on diagnostics research and translation to antimicrobial resistance solutions. He shared the work of the University’s Fleming Fund Fellowship schemes in Uganda, Malawi and Kenya, that are building expertise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance. Till also gave an update on the UK-India project ‘DOSA - Diagnostics for One Health and User Driven Solutions for AMR’ which develops innovative diagnostics to curb AMR.