£50m funding to cure – rather than control – inflammatory diseases

Birmingham researchers are now part of the new £50m UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) for Restorative Immunology, seeking to find curative treatments for inflammatory diseases alongside team of leading scientists, doctors and patient research partners.

Diseases caused by chronic inflammation – such as arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune liver disease and Sjögren’s disease – currently require lifelong management. However, this new programme of research is aiming to kickstart a transformation in understanding the causes of inflammatory disease, with the ultimate aim of developing cures.

The MRC CoRE is funded for the next 14 years and is led by a team of investigators from across the UK and Japan, aiming to transform the lives of people facing debilitating immune-mediated diseases.

As well as being a major burden for individuals, chronic inflammation has a considerable impact on health services and the wider economy. These conditions arise when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues, including joints and the gut, skin, eyes, liver, and salivary glands, among many others. The resulting inflammation can cause irreversible tissue and organ damage, chronic pain and lifelong disability.

Despite major advances in treatment, many people, including those whose disease begins in childhood, require lifelong therapy to control inflammation and prevent further damage. The impact can be profound, affecting health, independence and quality of life.

Professor Adam Croft, from School of Infection, Inflammation and Immunology, the Arthritis UK Chair of Rheumatology and Director of the MRC CoRE in Restorative Immunology said: “While remarkable advances have been made in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases over the past two decades, the focus has largely been on controlling inflammation to relieve symptoms and prevent damage to tissues.

“New technologies now allow us to study diseased tissues at unprecedented resolution, revealing how healthy tissue becomes diseased and identifying the cells and molecular pathways that drive this process. Combined with the development of therapies capable of precisely targeting these cells and pathways, this creates a realistic opportunity to move beyond lifelong disease control towards treatments delivered with curative intent – with the ultimate goal of restoring long-term health and wellbeing.”

Alongside Professor Adam Croft, who is an active researcher at both the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford, Birmingham researchers will join this programme, contributing strengths integral to the success of the MRC CoRE including: human tissue modelling; experimental medicine; and early clinical studies.

The University of Birmingham has also attracted major global partners to join the ambitious programme. Professor Ye Oo is Chair of autoimmune liver diseases and translational hepatology and will lead liver theme of MRC CoRE. Prof Oo’s recent Wellcome Discovery Award with Nobel Laureate, Professor Shimon Sakaguchi from Osaka University will underpin early phase translational trials.

Alongside leading experts for specific conditions covered by the MRC CoRE, the University of Birmingham will look at vital cross-cutting workstreams such as inclusive research design and data equity and generalisability.

The CoRE will build on best practice approaches developed in Birmingham, including Artificial Intelligence-focused project STANDING Together and REP-EQUITY, which helps reduce health inequity in research. The underpinning support will ensure the data underpinning the programme represents patient experiences of health burdens, while pioneering statistical approaches.

Dr Ameeta Retzer, an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Evidence and Implementation Science said: “The MRC CoRE for Restorative Immunology represents a transformative opportunity for people with immune mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID). The inclusion of key programmes such as REP-EQUITY will ensure it doesn’t leave anyone behind.”

The team will bring together experts from eight universities, charities, public engagement organisations, industry and biotechnology, combining different skills and perspectives to improve the lives of patients and train the next generation of researchers.

Dr Ceri Williams, Executive Director of Challenge Led Portfolio at MRC, said: “MRC Centres of Research Excellence are designed to tackle some of the most important challenges in biomedical research through sustained, ambitious and collaborative science. By doing so, they contribute to UKRI’s mission to advance knowledge, improve lives and drive growth across the UK.

“By bringing together expertise from across disciplines, sectors and countries to tackle these fundamental questions, this centre has the potential to transform our understanding of inflammatory disease and accelerate the development of treatments that deliver lasting benefits for patients.”