Centre for Inflammatory Disease

Investigating the causes and mechanisms of organ damage in a range of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions

The Centre for Inflammatory Disease brings together a diverse group of clinical and non-clinical experts who study the causes and mechanisms of organ damage in a range of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.

Key research areas include autoimmunity, complement, macrophage biology, tumour immunology, vascular inflammation, skin immunology and renal pathology. Our methodologies range from in vitro approaches; in vivo modelling of inflammation and autoimmunity; clinical trials and systems biology. Clinically we have expertise in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus; C3 glomerulopathy; Glomerulonephritis, Diabetic nephropathy, Chronic kidney disease, Chronic Granulomatous Disease and Vasculitis.

Funding sources include the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Versus Arthritis, British Heart Foundation, Kidney Research UK, and the National Institute for Health Research.

Professor Matthew Pickering

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Professor Matthew Pickering Director
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2315

Location

9N12, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Matthew Pickering is Professor of Rheumatology and a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in Clinical Science. His research interest is complement and the kidney and his clinical expertise includes systemic lupus erythematous and complement deficiency states.

Professor Danny Altmann

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Professor Danny Altmann Professor of Immunology
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 8212

Location

5S5C, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Danny Altmann heads a lab at the Hammersmith Hospital Campus of Imperial, with expertise in the HLA system, antigen discovery, T cell subsets and NK cells.
Dr Jacques Behmoaras

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Dr Jacques Behmoaras Reader
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2339

Location

Currently based at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

Bio

Jacques Behmoaras' group applies systems-genetics approaches in macrophage immune function and metabolism related to complex inflammatory diseases.
Professor Marina Botto

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Professor Marina Botto Director of Bioservices, Professor of Rheumatology
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2316

Location

9N10, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Marina Botto is Professor of Rheumatology, Honorary Consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and Director of Bioservices at Imperial College London. Her research focuses on complement biology and autoimmunity, specifically systemic lupus erythematous.
Professor Petter Brodin

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Professor Petter Brodin Garfield Weston Chair of Neonatology and Professor of Paediatric Immunology
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Location

Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Professor Brodin’s research centres on understanding factors that shape human immune system variation in health and disease, and developing new experimental and computational tools to study human immune systems in more comprehensive and holistic ways. As an active paediatrician specialising in pediatric immunology, his research also explores how and when the immune system is shaped by environmental exposures early in life.
Professor Terence Cook

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Professor Terence Cook Emeritus Professor
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2009

Location

9N9, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Terence Cook is Emeritus Professor and Honorary Consultant Renal Pathologist in North West London Pathology. His research interests are mechanisms of kidney injury in glomerular disease, particularly glomerulonephritis associated with abnormal control of complement activation.
Dr Alice Denton

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Dr Alice Denton MRC Career Development Fellow
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Location

9N15a, 9th Floor, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Dr Alice Denton is an MRC Career Development Fellow with a background in the regulation of adaptive immunity. Her research focusses on how fibroblasts govern the initiation and development of protective immunity.
Professor Guido Franzoso

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Professor Guido Franzoso Professor of Inflammation and Signal Transduction
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 8421

Location

5N1A, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Guido Franzoso is Professor and Chair of Signal Transduction and Inflammation and holds an Honorary position at Imperial College NHS Trust. His research interest is the regulation and function of NF-κB transcription factors.
Professor Liz Lightstone

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Professor Liz Lightstone Professor of Renal Medicine
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2309

Location

5S5e, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Liz Lightstone is Professor of Renal Medicine and Honorary Consultant Physician in the Renal Directorate at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She undertakes translational research in glomerulonephritis, notably lupus nephritis and C3GN, as well as in pregnancies in women with kidney diseases.
Dr Tiago Cunha Luis

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Dr Tiago Cunha Luis Sir Henry Dale Fellow
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Location

9N4b, 9th Floor, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Dr Tiago Cunha Luis investigates the molecular mechanisms by which the bone marrow microenvironment regulates haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) function during regeneration and in the development of haematological malignancies.
Dr Stephen McAdoo

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Dr Stephen McAdoo Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer
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Location

Renal Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Dr Stephen McAdoo holds an Imperial College Clinician Researcher Fellowship, and is an Honorary Consultant Nephrologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. His clinical and research interests are in autoimmune kidney diseases, with a particular focus on crescentic glomerulonephritis and systemic vasculitis.
Dr Nick Medjeral-Thomas

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Dr Nick Medjeral-Thomas IPPRF - Post-Doctoral and Post-CCT Research Fellowship
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2318

Location

9N15, 9th Floor, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Nick Medjeral-Thomas is a Clinical Research Fellow and Nephrologist at Imperial College London. His research interest is the contribution of complement activity to glomerular kidney disease, with a focus on IgA nephropathy and C3 glomerulopathy.
Dr James Peters

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Dr James Peters Reader in Rheumatology and UKRI Innovation Fellow at Health Data Research UK
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Location

Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

James Peters' research lies at the interface of molecular epidemiology, computational biology and clinical medicine. Our focus is understanding the molecular and cellular basis of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases using a combination of genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics.
Dr Maria Prendecki

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Dr Maria Prendecki MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow
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Location

5th Floor, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Maria Prendecki's research focus is to understand how neutrophil heterogeneity contributes to the pathogenesis and spectrum of disease in ANCA associated vasculitis (AAV).
Professor Charles Pusey

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Professor Charles Pusey Emeritus Professor of Medicine
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2308

Location

5N2, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Charles Pusey is Emeritus Professor of Medicine, and Honorary Consultant Physician in the Renal Directorate at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He is a clinician scientist with a particular interest in autoimmune renal disease, including primary systemic vasculitis.
Dr Candice Roufosse

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Dr Candice Roufosse Clinical Reader in Renal Pathology
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 3280

Location

Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Dr Candice Roufosse is Clinical Reader in Renal Pathology and Honorary Consultant in Renal and Transplant Cellular Pathology North West London Pathology (affiliated to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust). She carries out translational research in renal and transplant pathology.
Dr Sophie Rutschmann

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Dr Sophie Rutschmann Reader in Immunology
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 8213

Location

9N4b, Hammersmith Hospital, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Sophie Rutschmann is a non-clinical Senior Lecturer with a research background in genetics and immunology. In the Department, she leads the MSc Immunology and advises on the education strategy. In the Faculty of Medicine, she is the Academic Lead for Postgraduate Education.
Dr Eleanor Sandhu

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Dr Eleanor Sandhu Honorary Clinical Research Fellow
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 3980

Location

5N8A, 5th Floor, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Dr Eleanor Sandhu is a Consultant Nephrologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Her research interest is in the neurobiology of the body-brain axis in modifying salt intake and its translation to the clinical care of renal patients.
Professor Jessica Strid

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Professor Jessica Strid Professor of Cellular Immunology
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 1475

Location

9N15B, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Jessica Strid is a Professor of Cellular Immunology. Her research group studies immune-surveillance in epithelial tissues, principally the skin, and focus on understanding the role of tissue resident immune cells in regulating epithelial cell homeostasis, repair and carcinogenesis.
Professor Frederick Tam

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Professor Frederick Tam Ken and Mary Minton Chair of Renal Medicine
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2354

Location

5N, 8C, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Hospital, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Professor Frederick Tam's research has been developing non-invasive biomarkers and novel anti-inflammatory therapies for kidney diseases, including diabetic nephropathy, glomerulonephritis and rejection of kidney transplant. His group integrates laboratory mechanistic study with clinical trials.
Dr David Thomas

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Dr David Thomas Reader in Immunology and Inflammation (Clinical)
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 8506

Location

9NC, 9th Floor, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

David Thomas is a Reader in Immunity and Inflammation and Wellcome-Beit Prize Clinical Research Career Development Fellow. His laboratory focuses on the biology of EROS, a protein that he has shown is essential for the phagocyte respiratory burst in mouse and human.
Dr Fiona Watt

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Dr Fiona Watt Clinical Reader in Rheumatology
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Location

9th Floor, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Fiona Watt is a Clinical Reader, Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Her clinical and research interest is in osteoarthritis, particularly clinical & biological factors which predict outcome in high-risk groups and the development of new tests and treatments for the condition.
Dr Michelle Willicombe

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Dr Michelle Willicombe Clinical Reader in Renal Pathology
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Location

Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Dr Michelle Willicombe is a Clinical Reader in Renal Pathology and Honorary Consultant Nephrologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, with clinical expertise in transplantation. Her research interest is in the prevention and treatment of antibody-mediated transplant rejection.
Dr Kevin Woollard

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Dr Kevin Woollard Honorary Senior Lecturer
Send email+44 (0)20 3313 2357

Location

9N15C, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

Bio

Dr Woollard is Honorary Senior Lecturer and Principal Scientist, Pre-clinical Renal Bioscience Lead at AstraZeneca (Cambridge). His lab studies the immunobiology of inflammatory kidney and reno-cardiac disease.