MRC CoRE in Restorative Immunology

Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) affect people of all ages and can cause lifelong damage to organs such as joints, gut, liver and salivary glands. These conditions are commonly treated with drugs that suppress the immune system, but most individuals never achieve drug-free remission. Instead, most people require lifelong treatment with drugs that increase risk of infections, cancer, and other serious complications, but that fail to address the underlying causes of the disease.
Our ambition is to transform how IMIDs are treated. Instead of only suppressing disease, we aim to develop therapies that restore immune balance and tissue health, achieving true remission without the need for ongoing immunosuppression. To achieve this goal, we will use cutting-edge technologies to define remission, uncover hidden biological mechanisms of inflammation and its resolution in affected tissues and apply advanced therapies to reset the immune system to a state of health. Our approach redefines treatment success; not just improvement in symptoms, but biological remission, measured directly in the tissues where disease occurs. We will build a cellular and molecular atlas of the target tissues of diseases to identify shared pathways of disease resolution, using artificial intelligence and other novel data mining tools, and create a platform to test and translate new therapies that maintain freedom from disease and confer a normal health-span.
This paradigm shift in the treatment of IMIDs is urgently needed, due to the lifelong risk of morbidity and mortality associated with chronic illness, medication toxicity and the considerable economic implications of managing these conditions. Besides the significant healthcare resources and costs devoted to treating these conditions, there are substantial impacts beyond healthcare, including reduced productivity for those who are of working age and the loss of educational and social opportunities for children and young people. As a...