Our mission

The immune system is essential for tissue homeostasis and host defence against pathogens. Immune dysregulation underlies the aetiopathogenesis of many common diseases, including systemic autoimmunity, immunodeficiency, atherosclerosis and a significant fraction of cancers. Gaining a better understanding of how the immune system contributes to the pathogenesis of these diseases is required for the development of more targeted therapies.

The aim of the Immuno-Pathology Network, based with the Department of Immunology and Inflammation, is to ensure effective communication between basic research scientists (biology, chemistry, physics, bioengineering), clinicians, public health experts and environmental scientists with an interest in immune-pathology across and within Faculties at Imperial College London. The Network will provide the framework to foster pipelines of research from basic to clinical and translational.

Our members are working to address several key global challenges in immunopathology-related research. Together, we are seeking to gain an understanding of:

  • How the microbiota shapes the developing innate/adaptive immune system and modulates the immuno-inflammatory reaction in health and disease (e.g. cancer, obesity and chronic inflammatory diseases).
  • The mechanisms underpinning the immunosuppressive activity of the tumour microenvironment (in particular, CD8+ T cell exclusion from tumours) to overcome primary and secondary resistance to anticancer immunotherapies.
  • The mechanisms by which inflammation controls metabolism and stemness to drive epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cell migration and metastasis in cancer.
  • How inflammation alters the natural evolution the innate and adaptive immune system during ageing
  • The immunosuppressive mechanisms that prevent rejection of the foetus during pregnancy as a way to develop novel therapeutic routes to treat transplant rejection and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases
  • The mechanisms by which chronic infection persists in the host by evading and/or suppressing the immuno-inflammatory response
  • The precise contributions of different cell types (eg. stromal cells, mono-myeloid cells, dendritic cells, T cells etc.) to the induction and downregulation of immune/inflammatory responses and how these mechanisms are subverted in cancer and chronic autoimmune/inflammatory diseases.

Steering committee

  • Professor Guido Franzoso

    Personal details

    Professor Guido Franzoso Network Leader; Centre Director, Chair in Inflammation & Signal Transduction

    +44 (0)20 3313 8421

    Location

    10N8, Commonwealth Building, Hammersmith Campus

    Bio

    Guido Franzoso is Professor and Chair of Signal Transduction and Inflammation and holds an Honorary position at Imperial College NHS Trust. His research interest is the regulation and function of NF-κB transcription factors.

  • Dr Nadia Guerra

    Personal details

    Dr Nadia Guerra Senior Lecturer

    +44 (0)20 7594 5663

    Location

    604, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus

    Bio

    Dr Guerra's research aims to elucidate the physiologic relevance of Natural Killer cell Receptors (NK-R) in the development of Immunopathologies and Cancer using preclinical models of disease. 

  • Dr James Harker

    Personal details

    Dr James Harker Senior Lecturer in Respiratory Science

    +44 (0)20 7594 3171

    Location

    360, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus

    Bio

    Dr Harker's current research focuses on studying the development of humoral immunity in response to respiratory viral infections and the effects of age on this process.

  • Dr David Owen

    Personal details

    Dr David Owen Clinical Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology

    +44 (0)20 3313 6195

    Location

    G20A, ICTEM building, Hammersmith Campus

    Bio

    Dr Owen's research investigates the role of microglia in brain disease and identifying drugs to modulate their responses.

  • Dr Margarita Dominguez-Villar

    Personal details

    Dr Margarita Dominguez-Villar Senior Lecturer

    +44 (0)20 7594 3735

    Location

    117, Wright Fleming Wing, St Mary's Campus

  • Dr Teresa Thurston

    Personal details

    Dr Teresa Thurston Advanced Research Fellow

    +44 (0)20 7594 3072

    Location

    2.40, Flowers Building, South Kensington Campus

    Bio

    Dr Thurston's research seeks to understand what determines the fate of intracellular bacteria, a complex interaction mediated by both the host and the pathogen.

  • Dr Patricia Barral

    Personal details

    Dr Patricia Barral Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute

    +44 (0)20 3796 3358

    Location

    The Francis Crick Institute

    Bio

    Dr Barral's work aims to uncover how, where and when cells of the immune system recognise and respond to lipids, what the outcomes of these responses are, and what the consequences are for human health when these processes go wrong.

  • Dr Emma Davenport

    Personal details

    Dr Emma Davenport Group Leader

    Location

    Wellcome Sanger Institute

    Bio

    Dr Davenport's research focuses on integrating functional genomics and clinical data in order to understand how genetics contributes to the patient-to-patient heterogeneity in treatment response.

  • Professor Iain McNeish

    Personal details

    Professor Iain McNeish Chair in Oncology

    +44 (0)20 7594 2185

    Location

    G036m Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, Hammersmith Campus

    Bio

    Iain McNeish is Professor of Oncology and Head of the Division of Cancer within the Department of Surgery and Cancer.  He is also the Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre and Cancer theme lead in the Imperial NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

  • Professor Alan Melcher

    Personal details

    Professor Alan Melcher Team Leader

    +44 (0)20 7153 5205

    Location

    The Institute of Cancer Research

    Bio

    Professor Melcher is the Lead of the Centre for Translational Immunotherapy, a virtual Centre bringing together staff and students from the ICR and its partner hospital, the Royal Marsden, that aims to increase communication between clinicians and scientists with an interest in translational immunotherapy.

  • Dr Nick Powell

    Personal details

    Dr Nick Powell Clinical Reader in Gastroenterology

    Location

    Norfolk Place, St Mary's Campus

    Bio

    Dr Powell is a Clinical Reader and consultant in Gastroenterology. His key clinical and research interests focus on intestinal inflammation in the context of inflammatory bowel diseases (such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), but also in gut inflammation resulting from certain treatments, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors.  

  • Dr Reiko J. Tanaka

    Personal details

    Dr Reiko J. Tanaka Reader in Computational Systems Biology & Medicine

    +44 (0)20 7594 6374

    Location

    RSM 3.10, Royal School of Mines, South Kensington Campus

    Bio

    Dr Tanaka's research aims to search for fundamental rules and mechanisms of biological control from the viewpoint of control, and to make a decisive contribution to systems medicine and biology.