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In this area:

 

  • Collaborators
    • Dr Chandan Alam
    • Dr Cathy Baker
    • Dr Declan Bates (University of Leicester)
    • Dr Michael Burnet (KINACEPT Programme, Synovo GmbH)
    • Professor Rod Flower (WHRI)
    • Dr Michael Grahn (QM)
    • Professor Vladimir Holan (Czech Academy of Science)
    • Professor Stefan Laufer (University of Tubingen, Germany)
    • Professor Kim Rainsford (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)
    • Professor David Ray (University of Manchester)
    • Professor Ivan Roitt (University College London)
    • Dr Toby Lawrence (QM)
    • Dr Ahuva Nissim (WHRI)
    • Professor Mauro Perretti (WHRI)
    • Dr Arthur Tucker (Bart's & The London NHS Trust)
  

Dr Michael P. Seed, B.Sc., Ph.D., M.I.Biol., C.Biol.
William Harvey Inflammation Research Fellow
Centre for Experimental Medicine & Rheumatology

Contact Details:

m.p.seed@qmul.ac.uk

Mike Seed graduated in Pharmacology, with a PhD from the University of Bath, followed by a lectureship. He joined the pharmaceutical industry in arthritis Drug Discovery in arthritis and angiogenesis disease modelling, drug screening and target validation, centring on leflunomide analogues, phospholipase A2 and matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors. He continued his development of inflammatory and cancer disease models, concentrating on transdermal drug delivery,  joint destruction, and angiogenesis in the Department of Experimental Pathology, Saint Bartholomew’s Medical College, as an Honorary Senior Lecturer. He is the William Harvey Inflammation Research Fellow and Sir Halley Stewart Trust Lecturer lecturing in inflammopharmacology and drug discovery in the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology. He is the BIRAs appointed representative on the Board of the International Association of Inflammation Societies.

 

Current research interests

 

Auto-immune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, are crippling, very painful and lead to an early death. Dr Seed’s research focuses on the discovery and proof of concept of molecular targets amenable to orally active low molecular weight new chemical entities. These are the next generation of anti-autoimmune therapeutics aimed to replace current biologic treatments. Research centres on in vitro and in vivo modelling and molecular analysis of immune and auto-immune disease mechanisms and the associated tissue destruction. A partnership in the KINACEPT EUFP7 programme is investigating the genetic basis of inter-patient variability in p38MAP-kinase inhibitor responses, the anti-rheumatic potential for p38 inhibitors being largely unfulfilled in the clinic. A collaboration with the University of Manchester on the Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Initiative ‘Selective glucocorticoid receptor agonists for the treatment of inflammatory conditions’ is designing novel anti-rheumatic steroids whose anti-inflammatory properties are dissociated from the life-threatening side effects associated with this drug class. This research adds in silico drug design, chemical synthesis, and gene trans-activation and trans- repression screening in the collaboration, to this laboratory which will differentiate the anti-rheumatic activity of dissociated steroids from their osteopenic and diabetic side effects. The mechanistic studies of a novel set of orally active anti-rheumatic and anti-erosive heparinoid-like NCEs invented here, that modulate inflammatory cell adhesion responses and cytokine synthesis profiles, as well as HSV/HIV immune cell interactions are being pursued. PI3kinase is a major interest, funded through the William Harvey Research Foundation. The Gordon van Armand Prize research into the role of IKKα in type IV hypersensitivity responses, and dendritic cell – T cell interactions is being finalised.

 

Key publications

 

 
 
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Research Staff:

  • Dr S Ayoub
  • Mrs M R Jones
  • Dr N Malik

 

 

The Eroding Sea: The Sea of Arthritis erodes into the coral shores of joints, as if seen from the air.

Microfocal X-Ray CT image of an arthritic mouse joint showing the erosion of bone.
by Web Editor. © Queen Mary, University of London 2004
William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, John Vane Science Centre, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ