Powrie Mucosal Immunology Group

 

 

 

Group Leader is Fiona Powrie

 

Sir William Dunn School of Pathology

University of Oxford

South Parks Rd

Oxford OX1 3RE

Phone: (01865) 285494

Fax: (01865) 275591

 

And

 

Translational Gastroenterology Unit

Nuffield Dept Clinical Medicine-Experimental Medicine Division

University of Oxford

John Radcliffe Hospital

Headington

Oxford OX3 9DU

Phone: (01865) 220137

 

Acknowledgment: Physiology: Obesity and gut flora. Matej Bajzer & Randy J. Seeley. Nature 444, 1009-1010

 

 

Outline of Research

 The gastrointestinal tract is one of the major sites of immunological challenge to the host immune system. Here the host must be able to mount protective immune responses against invading pathogenic micro-organisms while, at the same time specifically not activating these mechanisms in response to dietary antigens or the beneficial normal enteric flora. In the intestine, therefore, perhaps more than any other organ, immune reactivity must be tightly regulated to ensure induction of protective and not pathologic responses.

 The research interests of the group include dissection of the factors that control the mutualistic relationship between commensal bacteria and the intestinal immune system and how this breaks down in inflammatory bowel disease. We have a particular interest in T cell: dendritic cell interactions and cytokine networks in the intestine and how these influence the balance between effector and regulatory T cells responses. We combine model systems of intestinal inflammation and colon cancer with the study of innate and adaptive immune responses in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients.

 

The recently established Translational Gastroenterology Unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital is headed by Prof Fiona Powrie. State of the art laboratories are in close proximity to clinical gastroenterology and bring together scientists, clinician scientists and gastroenterologists. Its objective is to translate fundamental research in mucosal immunology into the identification of novel markers of disease that inform diagnosis and treatment strategies, as well as into enhanced treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, liver disease and cancer.

 

The research is funded by:

 

The Wellcome Trust

 

The Medical Research Council

 

The European Union (FP7 INFLA-CARE)

 

Cancer Research UK