Systems Immunity Research Institute
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Systems Immunity www.cardiff.ac.uk/systems-immunity Research Institute Sefydliad Ymchwil Systemau Imiwnedd 1 Systems Immunity Research Institute Our research provides a holistic view of chronic disease progression, the control of infection and mechanisms that determine an effective immune response www.cardiff.ac.uk/systems-immunity www.cardiff.ac.uk/systems-immunity [Contents] Message from the Directors We are delighted to present the 2 Professor Paul Morgan Systems Immunity University 3 Systems Immunity University Research Institute (SIURI) overview Director of the Systems [04] Immunity Research Research Institute (SIURI), SIURI Metrics – at a glance [05] Institute established in 2015. SIURI was awarded a £4.5M core grant from Cardiff Innovation and Impact [06] University over 5 years to recruit new skilled faculty, embed infrastructure and support training activities Research Themes [07] including a Systems Immunity 4-year PhD programme. Our aim at that time was to bring together our large SIURI Big Data Case Studies [08] and diverse faculty, around 45 separate research groupings, located throughout two Cardiff Colleges SIURI Research Highlights [10] Professor Valerie into immune, infection and inflammation research. O’Donnell Biomedical research has entered a new era where Engagement and Involvement [12] Co-Director of Systems our experiments increasingly generate a wealth Immunity Research of data requiring the power of mathematics and SIURI Collaborations [14] informatics in order to make sense of it. Harnessing Institute the power of big data provides enormous opportunities Careers & Training [15] for understanding immune disease, whether this is biochemical, cellular, model or human patient/ SIURI and associated Technology Platforms [16] population based. SIURI Faculty Lead profiles [17] In our relatively short time, we have achieved some notable successes. Partnering with the Neurosciences and Mental Health Research Institute, we were awarded two new centres, the Hodge Centre for Neuropsychiatric- immunology and the MRC Dementia Research Institute Cardiff, which focuses primarily on translating immune and inflammatory genetic findings into mechanisms. We were also delighted to be recently awarded a Sêr Cymru II Chair in Systems Medicine (£5.5M) from Welsh Government, which will establish a Hub in Immunophenotyping initially researching sepsis in neonates. We host several Wellcome Trust Investigators and Fellows, and a major research portfolio of basic sciences and clinical programmes valued at over £75.6m funded by MRC, EU and all major research charities. SIURI’s research covers a broad portfolio that includes all our biggest killer diseases, and increasingly we see that these diseases do not strike in isolation, but susceptible individuals often contract more than one in tandem, and often present with acute or chronic neuropsychiatric complications. Understanding why inflammatory diseases present as a spectrum and on a continuum is of increasing interest to SIURI and will be a major priority area for new investment. www.cardiff.ac.uk/systems-immunity Systems Immunity Research Institute SIURI - Metrics at a glance (SIURI) Overview Cardiff University was ranked 5th in the most recent Research Excellence 4 Framework (REF) based on the quality of our research, a meteoric rise that 5 confirms our place as a world-leading university. An impressive 87% of our research was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent. The Systems Immunity Research Institute is part of the School of Medicine, ranked ‘51-100’ in the QS rankings of World Medical Schools. [153] Researchers Cardiff University ranked [5th] amongst UK universities in the recent Research Excellenece New grants since Our institute focuses on frontier-challenging “big-data-led” research into basic [66+] Framework and applied immunology, infection and inflammation. SIURI’s inception in August 2015 [£5.5M] Award from Wales Embedding Big Data We promote an integrated [300+] Publications per Government for Ser Cymru Ii approaches, we aim to better ethos that combines world- year by SIURI faculty staff in Chair in Systems Medicine understand the complex leading experimental top tier journals such as nature, ‘systems’ that govern the and clinical research with science, pnas and embo j 2 New Centres: immune system in health and computational modeling, disease. statistics and informatics. [£75.6M] Current value [£1M] Hodge Centre for of grants held by SIURI faculty Neuropsychiatric-Immunology members Our Institute builds on Cardiff’s extensive strength in infection, immunity and big data, exploiting our findings in the development of new diagnostic and treatment modalities for our major killer diseases. We apply systems biology [£13M] UK Dementia based-approaches to immunological research, embedding and incorporating the necessary skills and technologies Research Institute across disciplines. Research [£4.6M+] Both centres are joint We host many collaborations with academic, clinical and industrial partners from across Cardiff University, the UK council funding in 2017 and international. A better understanding of the underlying highly complex mechanisms will allow us to develop collaborations with the new therapies and vaccines for disease intervention and prevention, and novel diagnostics for better patient management. Neuroscience and Mental Our research covers many of the greatest health challenges of the 21st century including antimicrobial resistance, [110] PhD students Health Research Institute acute and chronic inflammatory disease (cardiovascular, diabetes, rheumatoid, kidney). We deliver long-term impacts supervised by the research (NMHRI), Cardiff on science, education and society, through tackling the national and global challenges of our time. Our ultimate aim is to make a difference in the clinic, improving patient outcome and public health as a whole. institute www.cardiff.ac.uk/systems-immunity Innovation and Impact Research Themes Innovation, and the delivery of improvements in healthcare, is a key element SUIRI’s basic, translational and clinical research utilises state-of-the-art 6 7 of what we do within SIURI. technological big data generating platforms, bioinformatics, modelling and These improvements have involved all aspects of human disease, from improving our understanding of the biostatistics expertise, combined with in vitro, model systems and patient/ mechanisms which underlie disease processes, to the design of new technologies to speed diagnosis and the population-based research. design/delivery of new therapies. These innovations are targeted at improving the management and outcome of patients in a range of diseases from chronic- e.g. arthritis, diabetes and kidney disease, to life-limiting conditions e.g. Our institute houses three separate but linked themes, which aim to dissect the multilayered interactions between infections and cancer. The translational and transformative element of the work has been witnessed in 2017, by the the immune system, tissues and microorganisms. 10 human studies of technologies and therapies which were invented or developed within the URI. In all of this activity the URI works closely with key industrial partners and SME’s across Europe, Scandinavia and the US. Key exemplars of this have been: The award of $62M to fund Phase 2 studies of CXA 10, developed with Prof Val O’Donnell and her team, to modify inflammation, in renal disease and pulmonary arterial hypertension. The award of €6.5M in EU Horizons 2020, Chronic Inflammation Persistent and Mechanisms of and $11M from the US CFF to fund the ongoing human studies of alginate oligomer Failure to regulate acute resistant infections immunity inflammation and the subsequent The emergence of antimicrobial Immune surveillance plays a therapies in the management of cystic transition into chronicity is fibrosis. resistance represents one of key role in protecting the body recognised as a key step in the the major global health threats. against tumour development and development of cancer, auto- In this activity the URI has worked closely with NHS Persistent infections cause maintaining cellular homeostasis. immunity and non-healing wounds, Wales, to establish a “centripetal hub” of academic debilitating disease in the elderly The underlying mechanisms can and the many diseases associated and clinical research excellence. The work has and in immunocompromised be exploited for novel therapies with ageing; among them arthritis, attracted not only prestigious inward research (and individuals. At the same time, little is harnessing the immune system to vascular inflammation, diabetes, Company) investment to Wales, but has also seen known about how our body interacts combat cancer and autoimmune dementia and vision loss. investment in pivotal clinical trials at Cardiff and Vale with the myriad of microorganisms it disorders. is constantly exposed to. Health Board. We apply systems approaches to We study fundamental processes understand how immune responses We use infection models, cutting including leukocyte trafficking, Professor Colin Dayan and his team give rise to pathology, and explore edge bioinformatics frameworks and cytokine signalling, immune leading the UK clinical studies of peptide dysregulated immune responses cohort studies in defined patient modulation and antigen recognition. immunotherapy in patients with Type in disease to identify common groups to elucidate complex host- We use bench-to-bedside pathways that are amenable to 1 diabetes and