School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences

Centre for Rheumatic Disease

The Centre for Rheumatic Diseases within the School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences at King’s, hosts a core group based on the Denmark Hill campus offering academic leadership, and a hub at Guy’s leading on clinical trials and experimental medicine studies. The Centre, which was awarded EULAR Centre of Research Excellence status in 2019, underpins academic scholarship in research, teaching and education, and serves as an all-embracing academic unit for research active scientists, clinical investigators and service users/carers in the College and affiliated NHS partners whose research focus aligns to the rheumatic diseases.

Central to our work are research themes defined by the following groupings, using a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, underpinned by patient and service user involvement and public engagement in research:

Health outcomes and infection using large observational studies and routinely collected healthcare data (e.g. BSRBR, NEIAA)
Mental health and psychosocial determinants of health in rheumatic diseases
Co-morbidity and multi-morbidities, in particular using a syndemic framework
Analysis of molecular and cellular signatures of disease studied in the context of Experimental Medicine studies in patients with chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases
Disease stratification, predictors of disease risk, disease progression and disease interception studies

Lempp Group

Sociology applied in muscular-skeletal health and its psycho-social impact, physical and mental interface in long-term muscular-skeletal conditions, patient involvement and public engagement in research, quality of life, patient generated outcome measures; non-medicinal interventions, Sociology of medical education

Professor Andrew Cope

Professor of Rheumatology
Professor James Galloway

Professor of Rheumatology
Professor Heidi Lempp

Emeritus Professor of Medical Sociology in Rheumatology and Medical Education
Dr Elena Nikiphorou

Reader in Rheumatology and Medical Education, and Director of Student Support
Professor Sam Norton

Professor in Research Methods and Statistics

Honorary Academics

Professor Tim Vyse

Professor Francis Williams

Professor Bruce Kirkham

Professor David D’Cruz

Professor Leonie Taams

Professor Steve Thompson

Dr Tasanee Braithwaite

Dr Toby Garrood

Dr Patrick Gordon

Dr Nora Ng

Dr Sanjeev Patel

Dr Andrew Rutherford

Dr Ruth Williams

Ms Cristina-Blanco-Gil

Ms Georgie Bird

Mr Tom Esterine

Mr Scott Mercer

Ms Aderonke Audu

Dr Nicky Wilson

Dr Lindsay Bearne

Multi-color Molecular Visualization of Signaling Proteins Reveals How C-Terminal Src Kinase Nanoclusters Regulate T Cell Receptor Activation.

Simoncelli S, Griffié J, Williamson DJ, Bibby J, Bray C, Zamoyska R, Cope AP, Owen DM. Cell Rep. 2020 Dec 22;33(12):108523. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108523.

A developmental basis for the anatomical diversity of dermis in homeostasis and wound repair.

Usansky I, Jaworska P, Asti L, Kenny FN, Hobbs C, Sofra V, Song H, Logan M, Graham A, Shaw TJ. J Pathol. 2020 Nov 16. doi: 10.1002/path.5589. Online ahead of print.

Imaging neoangiogenesis in rheumatoid arthritis (INIRA): whole-body synovial uptake of a 99mTc-labelled RGD peptide is highly correlated with power Doppler ultrasound.

Attipoe L, Chaabo K, Wajed J, Hassan FU, Shivapatham D, Morrison M, Ballinger J, Cook G, Cope AP, Garrood T. Ann Rheum Dis. 2020 Sep;79(9):1254-1255. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-217228. Epub 2020 Apr 23.

Cholesterol metabolism drives regulatory B cell IL-10 through provision of geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate.

Bibby JA, Purvis HA, Hayday T, Chandra A, Okkenhaug K, Rosenzweig S, Aksentijevich I, Wood M, Lachmann HJ, Kemper C, Cope AP, Perucha E. Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 8;11(1):3412. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17179-4.

IKZF3/Aiolos Is Associated with but Not Sufficient for the Expression of IL-10 by CD4+ T Cells.

Ridley ML, Fleskens V, Roberts CA, Lalnunhlimi S, Alnesf A, O'Byrne AM, Steel KJA, Povoleri GAM, Sumner J, Lavender P, Taams LS. J Immunol. 2020 Jun 1;204(11):2940-2948. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1901283. Epub 2020 Apr 22.

Dissecting Fibroblast Heterogeneity in Health and Fibrotic Disease.

Shaw TJ, Rognoni E. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2020 Jun 19;22(8):33. doi: 10.1007/s11926-020-00903-w.

What We See, What We Do Not See, and What We Do Not Want to See in HLA Class I Immunopeptidomes.

Mishto M. Proteomics. 2020 Jun 12:e2000112. doi: 10.1002/pmic.202000112. Online ahead of print.

Mechanisms of checkpoint inhibition-induced adverse events.

Urwyler P, Earnshaw I, Bermudez M, Perucha E, Wu W, Ryan S, Mcdonald L, Karagiannis SN, Taams LS, Powell N, Cope A, Papa S. Clin Exp Immunol. 2020 May;200(2):141-154. doi: 10.1111/cei.13421. Epub 2020 Feb 21.

Large database for the analysis and prediction of spliced and non-spliced peptide generation by proteasomes.

Specht G, Roetschke HP, Mansurkhodzhaev A, Henklein P, Textoris-Taube K, Urlaub H, Mishto M, Liepe J. Sci Data. 2020 May 15;7(1):146. doi: 10.1038/s41597-020-0487-6.

Tissue-resident macrophages in omentum promote metastatic spread of ovarian cancer.

Etzerodt A, Moulin M, Doktor TK, Delfini M, Mossadegh-Keller N, Bajenoff M, Sieweke MH, Moestrup SK, Auphan-Anezin N, Lawrence T. J Exp Med. 2020 Apr 6;217(4):e20191869. doi: 10.1084/jem.20191869.

Polyfunctional, Proinflammatory, Tissue-Resident Memory Phenotype and Function of Synovial Interleukin-17A+CD8+ T Cells in Psoriatic Arthritis.

Steel KJA, Srenathan U, Ridley M, Durham LE, Wu SY, Ryan SE, Hughes CD, Chan E, Kirkham BW, Taams LS. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2020 Mar;72(3):435-447. doi: 10.1002/art.41156. Epub 2020 Feb 4.

Interleukin-17 in rheumatoid arthritis: Trials and tribulations.

Taams LS.J Exp Med. 2020 Mar 2;217(3):e20192048. doi: 10.1084/jem.20192048.

Phosphatase PTPN22 Regulates Dendritic Cell Homeostasis and cDC2 Dependent T Cell Responses.

Purvis HA, Clarke F, Montgomery AB, Colas C, Bibby JA, Cornish GH, Dai X, Dudziak D, Rawlings DJ, Zamoyska R, Guermonprez P, Cope AP. Front Immunol. 2020 Mar 4;11:376. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.00376. eCollection 2020.

Specific targeting of CD163+ TAMs mobilizes inflammatory monocytes and promotes T cell-mediated tumor regression.

Etzerodt A, Tsalkitzi K, Maniecki M, Damsky W, Delfini M, Baudoin E, Moulin M, Bosenberg M, Graversen JH, Auphan-Anezin N, Moestrup SK, Lawrence T. J Exp Med. 2019 Oct 7;216(10):2394-2411. doi: 10.1084/jem.20182124. Epub 2019 Aug 2.

The cholesterol biosynthesis pathway regulates IL-10 expression in human Th1 cells.

Perucha E, Melchiotti R, Bibby JA, Wu W, Frederiksen KS, Roberts CA, Hall Z, LeFriec G, Robertson KA, Lavender P, Gerwien JG, Taams LS, Griffin JL, de Rinaldis E, van Baarsen LGM, Kemper C, Ghazal P, Cope AP. Nat Commun. 2019 Jan 30;10(1):498. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08332-9.

The departmental Expert Patient/carer Group, led by Heidi Lempp since 2003 is involved in research, under- and postgraduate medical education and health service improvement. Over the last 5 years Patient Education Evenings were offered for patient and carers to Rheumatology outpatient clinic attendees from King’s College- and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Trust three times a year about topics identified by patients relevant to their self-management of their long-term MSK conditions, including providing feedback to researchers about study ideas and findings.

Read the blog