What we do

Immunomodulatory therapeutic approaches in liver disease

The Liver Immunology Group is located on the Hammersmith (Commonwealth Building, 10th floor) and St Mary’s (QEQM Building, 10th floor) campuses. Our laboratory includes a close collaboration between scientists and clinicians, and conducts basic, translational, and clinical research. We investigate the cellular, molecular, and metabolic crosstalk underlying immune dysregulation during acute (e.g., paracetamol overdose) and chronic (e.g., fibrosis, cirrhosis, NAFLD) liver injury. To explore this, we study both human tissue samples and in vivo models of liver injury using a range of advanced technological tools (e.g., liver intravital imaging, tissue multiplex staining, bulk or single-cell sequencing, metabolomics/proteomics). Our research aims to improve our immunological understanding of liver disease pathogenesis and identify targets for developing new immunomodulatory therapies.

A special focus of our group is to examine the dysregulated and ineffective immune responses to infections in acute or chronic liver failure which contribute to high morbidity and mortality in patients. Another significant area of interest in the group is understanding the mechanisms through which different checkpoint pathways (e.g., PD-1/PD-L1, TIGIT axis) become activated in liver disease and mediate immune regulation in the liver microenvironment, with the aim of exploiting these to produce novel, targeted, immune-directed therapeutic strategies.

Summary of current research

• Immunomodulatory therapeutic approaches in acute and chronic liver failure
• Checkpoint pathways (e.g., PD-1, TIGIT) and immune (dys-) regulation in liver disease
• Immune cell crosstalk in checkpoint inhibitor-induced hepatitis
• Dysregulated lipid metabolism and immunological changes in liver failure syndromes
• TAM (Tyro3, Axl, MerTK) receptors and monocyte/macrophage biology in cirrhosis
• Gut microbiota and the immune landscape in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease