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John Cairns
Chronic inflammation-related diseases have been estimated to cause over half of all deaths worldwide, so unlocking the processes behind these diseases is crucial to saving lives through developing better prevention and treatments.
The MRC CoRE in Exposome Immunology will receive up to £50 million over 14 years, leveraging the combined strength of teams at The University of Oxford and The University of Manchester in immunology, big data, and environmental science.
The ‘exposome’ describes the many environmental factors a person encounters throughout their life, ranging from pollution and occupational hazards to diet and infectious diseases. This has a huge impact on health and wellbeing, with an estimated 30,000 deaths attributed to air pollution every year in the UK, and increasing rates of inflammatory diseases in children. However, very little is known about the mechanisms by which the exposome causes disease.
The researchers will initially focus on how air pollution, smoking and viral infections interact with the immune system at mucosal barriers – such as the linings of the lungs and gut – and go on to cause disease symptoms throughout the body. By understanding how the unique combination of a person’s genetics and history of environmental exposures drive disease, the researchers hope to develop new drugs that are more targeted, with fewer side-effects.