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Calliope Dendrou

Sir Henry Dale Fellow, Group Head / PI, Fellow and Supervisor

Functional Genomics of Autoimmune Disease

Research Area: Immunology
Technology Exchange: Cell sorting, Cellular immunology, Flow cytometry, Protein interaction, Transcript profiling and Transgenesis
Scientific Themes: Immunology & Infectious Disease and Genetics & Genomics
Keywords: Autoimmune diseases, Genotype-to-phenotype analyses, Single cell signalling and gene expression dynamics and Cytokine signalling

 

Autoimmune diseases affect ~10% of the population worldwide and they have no cure. Currently available immunomodulatory drugs can help to alleviate symptoms, but have variable efficacy and can lead to severe side effects. Progress in identifying the genetic determinants of autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases is helping to improve our knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie these conditions. The key research interests of my group are to better understand the architecture of genetic predisposition across different autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases, and to explore the functional relevance and potential clinical utility of such cross-comparisons.   

Assessing patterns of genetic association between autoimmune diseases to date reveals heterogeneity, but also a few key variants that are emerging as immunopathological foci. We aim to investigate shared molecular circuits and cellular mechanisms across conditions for the purpose of identifying immunological ‘hubs’ that may be targeted therapeutically via drug repositioning approaches.

A further aim is to interrogate the relationship between genetic variation and the spatiotemporal dynamics of immune cell responsiveness, and how this may parallel the spectrum of immune-mediated diseases spanning malignancies, autoimmunity and infections. Elucidating these relationships can have implications for precision medicine in the context of patient stratification, prognostication, and optimal drug dosaging to balance efficacy and side effects.

Courses

Doctoral Training Centre Degrees