Birmingham scientists in £50m hunt for cures to inflammatory diseases

University of Birmingham researchers are part of a new £50m research centre that aims to find cures for chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, rather than simply keeping them under control.

The Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence for Restorative Immunology will be funded over 14 years by UK Research and Innovation. It brings together scientists, doctors and patient research partners from across the UK and Japan.

From control to cure

Conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune liver disease and Sjögren's disease happen when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own tissues. The resulting inflammation can cause lasting damage to joints and organs, chronic pain and lifelong disability.

Treatments have improved greatly, but many people, including those whose illness starts in childhood, still need therapy for the rest of their lives. The new centre wants to change that by understanding how healthy tissue becomes diseased and finding treatments that restore it.

"While remarkable advances have been made in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases over the past two decades, the focus has largely been on controlling inflammation to relieve symptoms and prevent damage to tissues," said Professor Adam Croft, Director of the centre.

Professor Croft, the Arthritis UK Chair of Rheumatology at the university's School of Infection, Inflammation and Immunology, said new technologies now allow researchers to study diseased tissue at unprecedented resolution, revealing the cells and pathways that drive disease.

A burden beyond the individual

As well as the impact on patients' health, independence and quality of life, chronic inflammation places a heavy load on health services and the wider economy. The researchers hope that by targeting the causes of disease precisely, future treatments could bring lasting remission rather than lifelong management.