School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences

Department of Inflammation Biology

Our guiding mission is to identify and investigate cellular and molecular mechanisms that cause and control inflammation and to relate these findings to human health and disease.

We are interdisciplinary in nature; by bringing together different disciplines, we will accelerate our understanding of the common as well as the unique mechanisms that contribute to inflammation-related pathologies.

To achieve this, we conduct discovery-led, applied and clinical research (including clinical trials) related to inflammatory joint, lung, gut, liver, kidney and skin disease. We extend these investigations to cancer, pain, neurodegeneration and certain psychiatric and mental health disorders where inflammation is increasingly recognised as an important contributor.

We are highly committed to educating, training and inspiring the next generation of scientists and clinicians in these areas of research.

Our research groups

Inflammation Biology Group

The inflammation biology group studies the impact of inflammation in cancer progression with a particular focus on the biology of macrophages and dendritic cells.

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

Michael Robson group

The Michael Robson group researches glomerulonephritis and haemodialysis.

Xu Lab

The Xu Lab studies renal science an integrative Chinese medicine.

RNA Biology

RNA is at the forefront of biomedical research for its central role in how information is transferred from DNA to protein. This Research Interest Group is open to all interested parties from across the University.

Sharpe Lab

The Sharpe Lab studies mechanisms of acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease.

Shaw Lab

The Shaw Lab aims to understand the cell and molecular mechanisms underlying scarring.

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SpLAB

SpLAB is interested on mechanisms of immune activation and tolerance in man, from molecules to cells and the whole individual.

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Taams Lab

Studying fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms that initiate, perpetuate and regulate immune-mediated inflammation in human health and disease

Transplant Inflammation and Repair Group

A major research theme of the TIR group is ‘vascular inflammation’, focusing on cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in immune responses relevant to transplants.

Tummers Lab

The Tummers lab asks fundamental questions about how cells live and die, and what this means for our health.

Woszczek Group

Our research focuses around role of lipid mediators in pathomechanisms of chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma, rhinosinusitis and allergy. Using newly developed molecular and cellular biology methods we characterise functions and signalling of G-protein coupled receptors for eicosanoids (leukotrienes, prostaglandins) and sphingolipids (sphingosine-1-phosphate) and their role in immune response.