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The Centre for Experimental Medicine & Rheumatology opened in May 2007 and is led by Professor Costantino Pitzalis. The Centre is focused on the development of innovative therapeutic and diagnostic approaches to inflammatory and degenerative arthropathies, particularly rheumatoid and osteo arthritis. The emphasis is on translational research by combining strengths and expertise of basic and clinician scientists working together in four main areas:
1) Molecular mechanisms of tissue specific homing, chemokines and cytokines in cell migration and joint damage.
2) The pathobiology of synovitis: relationship to clinical phenotypes, biological and disease outcomes.
3) Mechanisms of joint surface damage and repair using molecular approaches for in situ tissue engineering.
4) Target discovery, drug delivery, imaging and proof of concept/efficacy studies using platform technologies based on phage display and the human/SCID mouse transplantation model.
The Centre is developing important collaborations throughout the Medical School and NHS Trust. Of particular relevance are the collaborative links already in place with Profs Flower, Perretti, and Chernajovsky’s groups to forming an Inflammation Strategy Group with a critical mass of about 80 clinicians and scientists dedicated to inflammation research, regenerative medicine, and rheumatology. Also critically important for the translation of our research programme are the interactions with the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Biomedical Materials and our colleagues in the Departments of Clinical Rheumatology and Orthopaedics.
Pathobiology of Early Arthritis Cohort
The Pathobiology of Early Arthritis Cohort (PEAC) has been established through the contribution of a consortium of independent, national centres of excellence. The specific aims of this project are to create an extensively phenotyped cohort of patients with early inflammatory arthritis with linked, detailed pathobiological data.
See: http://www.peac-mrc.mds.qmul.ac.uk
