Sii Staff Receive £1.2m V.A. Funding
Published: 17 May 2024
The School of Infection & Immunity's Professor Mariola Kurowska-Stolarska and Dr Domenico Somma lead a collaboration that has been awarded four years of funding worth £1.2million from Versus Arthritis (VA).
The School of Infection & Immunity's Professor Mariola Kurowska-Stolarska and Dr Domenic Somma lead a collaboration that has been awarded four years of funding worth £1.2million from Versus Arthritis (VA).
Together with Head of MVLS Professor Iain McInnes, Professor Stefano Alverini (Gemelli Fondazione in Rome), Professor Kim Midwood and Professor Christopher Buckley (both University of Oxford), they will utilise the funds for their 'Prevent RA' research studies.
Before individuals develop active RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis), the stage of the disease in which joints become inflamed, they exhibit a pre-clinical stage during which they may experience pain and/or have autoantibodies in their blood.
While current trials have shown the potential to delay RA, stopping it remains a challenge. To effectively prevent RA, a better understanding of the processes that drive the very early disease stages is essential.
Thus, the aim of this project, titled 'Identifying cellular and molecular tissue-mechanisms and biomarkers in the transition from pre-clinical to active-RA', is to establish key cells/molecules that drive the shift from pre-RA to active-RA.
In doing so, this will identify potential transformative novel targets for drugs that prevent RA in future generations, and to uncover easily accessible biomarkers to guide early intervention with existing treatments.
First published: 17 May 2024