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This project
brings together contributors from five academic and clinical centres
with a commercial organization, constructing what we believe is
an unrivalled consortium with respect to scientific innovation
and clinical experience. The participants represent the principal
European groups active in the field of immunological monitoring,
following transplantation and have all transferred their basic
and pre-clinical models to a degree of clinical application.
The coordinating centre is Imperial College of Science, Technology
and Medicine in which two of the principal investigators are based,
Professor R. Lechler and Dr. A Warrens. The five other academic
and clinical centres are:
1. University of Oxford (Professor Kathryn
Wood)
2. University of Nantes (Professor Jean-Paul
Soulillou)
3. Free University of Brussels (Professor
Michel Goldman)
4. Humboldt University of Berlin (Professor Hans-Dieter
Volk)
5. Memorec Biotech (Dr Uwe janssen)
*these links will revert to the detailed participating centres
included in the for doctors section.
I. Professor Robert Lechler
The King's College London, School of Medicine, is now
the coordinating centre for this project (since moving siets from Imperial College London), contributing one
member, Prof Robert Lechler,Dean of the School of Medicine
and Dr Anthony Warrens (project coordinator) who is based at Imperial College. The Imperial College
is in the top echelon of UK medical schools and has a particular
focus on high quality research. With a dedicated office for coordinating
EU-funded research programmes within an extensive research support
infrastructure , Imperial College as the largest number of EU
grants in the UK and the second largest in the whole EU. This
project will be run from the Department of Immunology at the Hammersmith
Campus of Imperial College , part of the Division of Medicine,
which has an annual research income of £24 million.
Robert Lechler, Dean of The School of Medicine
is a leading figure in transplantation immunology. He is an immunologist
of world renown with well over a decade of experience in co-ordinating
project and programme grants involving multiple research groups.
He is also a practising transplant physician. In addition, he
is an International Advisor to the Immune Tolerance Network, a
US$150 million contract to promote research into clinical tolerance.
He is also Deputy Editor of the American Journal of Transplantation
and sits on the Program and Basic Sciences Commitees of
the American Society of Transplantation.
Anthony Warrens is Senior Lecturer in Immunology and Nephrology.
He has his own transplantation research group, has extensive experience
in multi-centre trials (involving transnational consortia) and
in preparing submissions to local and national ethics committees.
He is a practising transplant physician and clinical nephrologist
and convenes the Hammersmith Hospital Transplant Physicians and
Surgeons Group, with particular responsibility for the development
of management protocols and audit in renal transplantation.
II. Professor Kathryn Wood, Nuffield Department of
Surgery, University of Oxford.
The University of Oxford is one of the top 3 medical schools in the UK . The Oxford Transplant Centre within the Nuffield Department of Surgery at Oxford is a centre of excellence for research and clinical work in the field of transplantation. It received the highest rating , 5*, in the Research Assessment Exercise carried out to evaluate research carried out by universities in the UK.
Kathryn Wood is Professor of Immunology at the Nuffield Department of Surgery, University of Oxford and is the recipient of a Royal Society-Wolfson Merit Award. Kathryn is an immunologist with an international reputation in the field of transplantation immunology. She is a Councillor of the Transplantation Society and an Editor of the journal Transplantation. Her research programme focuses on mechanisms of rejection and tolerance. Kathryn's research team has extensive experience of using in vivo transplantation models in the mouse and has already established the trans vivo DTH assay in Oxford . The facilities for in vivo work are of the highest standard in Oxford . All of the work proposed has been approved by the Local Ethics Committee for procedures using animals and permission to carry out the experiments proposed in workpackages.
III. Professor Jean-Paul Soulollou
ITERT “ Institut de transplantation et de recherché en transplantation” and INSERM U437 “ Immunointervention dans les Allo et Xénotransplantations” , headed by Jean-Paul, provides expertise in immunology of transplantation and particularly in immunointervention, from fundamental to applied science. The group is the largest in France for kidney and kidney/pancreas transplantation and one of the largest in Europe . It has demonstrated on several occasions its ability to bring projects initiated on the laboratory bench to immunointervention in the clinic and has been instrumental in developing several new immunointerventional strategies in the clinic (such as the clinical use of anti-IL2-R antibodies). In its research, ITERT uses a variety of in vivo models, including kidney transplantation in primates.
Jean-Paul (Prof of Immunology) (70% research) has contributed to 276 original articles and has 136 invited lectures as conferences. His present research activity concerns the understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms of allo tolerance in adult organisms, the molecular interactions in direct allo- and xenorecognition and immunointervention in allo- and xenotransplantation. ITERT has all appropriate facilities to conduct research in humans. ITERT has already been involved in three European programs ( one Biomed and two Biotech) and other international programs.
IV. Professor Hans-Dieter Volk
Humboldt University Berlin , University Hospital Charité, will be represented by the interdisciplinary transplant research laboratory (headed Prof Volk, Department of Medical Immunology, in collaboration with the Departments of Nephrology (Prof Reinke), Surgery (Dr Tullius) and Virology (Dr Prosesch). Charité is one of the leading medical faculties in Germany with nearly 2000 beds and more than 300 transplants per year (including kidney, heart, lung, liver, intestine and combined transplants). The interdisciplinary transplant research laboratories are in the Department of Medical Immunology, well equipped for all the planned molecular biology work.
Hans-Dieter;s group has worked for amny years in the field of both experimental (for example, tolerance induction, ischaemia-reperfusion injury, gene therapy) and clinical transplantation. Inaddition, the group is active in the field of experimental immune therapy of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases, chronic viral infections and sepsis.
Hans is coordinator of the EU RTD grant, focusing on new therapeutic strategies targeting hemoxygenaseto improve the treatment of autoimmune and transplant patients.
 Michel Goldman is the Head of the Department of Immunology at the Hôpital Erasme in Brussels and Director of the Laboratory of Experimental Immunology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
His research activities aim to elucidate the cellular and molecular basis of inflammatory pathologies from immunological origin and to develop new therapeutic strategies against these diseases. He has been involved both in clinical and experimental research programmes. In the field of organ transplantation, researchers in his laboratory elucidated a number of mechanisms responsible for the newborn tolerance to allograft, confirmed the immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory potential of interleukin-10, revealed the role of polynuclear eosinophils in some types of allograft rejection and identified a new immunosuppressive mediator: azodicarbonamide. His Laboratory developed a specific expertise in dendritic cell biology applied to tolerance.
VI. MEMOREC BIOTECH -Uwe Janssen
Memorec Biotec GmbH, since July 2003 part of the Miltenyi Biotec group, is focused on high quality expression profiling solutions for research, drug development and molecular diagnostics.
The company`s powerful genomic technology platform integrates expression profiling, extensive bioinformatics, and functional genomics. The platform allows Memorec Biotec to offer to its partners highly flexible, cost effective gene expression profiling services for research programs, drug target identification and validation, toxicogenomics and pharmacogenomics, tailored to individual needs.
Memorec Biotec`s current R & D programmes focus on the development of microarray based prognostic and diagnostic products for use in dermatology, oncology, transplantation and inflammatory diseases. These programs are supported by an excellent international network of outstanding clinical partners from university and hospitals.
Indices of Tolerance 2004 |
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