Professor Paul Klenerman talks with Professor Christopher Buckley about his recent papers.

Professor Paul Klenerman

Sidney Truelove Professorship of Gastroenterology, Nuffield Department of Medicine; Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

Professor Christopher Buckley

Director of Clinical Research, Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford

The opinions of our host and guests are their own; AoP does not endorse any individual viewpoints, given products or companies.

Reflecting on a distinguished and wide-ranging career as a clinician scientist, Professor Sir Mark Caulfield shares candid insights into the logistical, political and administrative challenges he has encountered along the way. From his early work in hypertension research to his leadership of the landmark 100,000 Genomes Project, he distils the key lessons learned and the practical toolkit needed to navigate a successful academic career. Offering clear, experience-based advice on planning research, managing setbacks and avoiding common pitfalls, this webinar provides an eye-opening and invaluable perspective for researchers at the start of their academic journey.

Fibromyalgia remains a challenging and often misunderstood condition, traditionally viewed through the lens of central sensitisation and chronic pain syndromes. However, emerging evidence is reshaping our understanding of its underlying mechanisms. This webinar will explore exciting new paradigms in fibromyalgia etiopathogenesis, focusing on the roles of immunity, autoimmunity, and small nerve fibre pathology. Cutting-edge research suggests that immune dysregulation and subtle autoimmune phenomena may contribute to symptom development, while pathology in small nerve fibres provides a compelling link between peripheral changes and central pain processing. These evolving insights not only deepen our knowledge of fibromyalgia biology but also open new avenues for diagnosis and targeted therapeutic strategies. Join us as leading experts discuss the latest data, debate key questions, and highlight the future of personalised approaches in fibromyalgia management.

These recent papers describe work in the field of stromal cell biology. Fibroblasts were long regarded as simple structural cells and often ignored by immunologists. In these studies of human disease Chris Buckley discusses how recent approaches based on transcriptomics have shone new light on these cells and their role in disease. Given their long lived nature and capacity to remain resident in tissues, they may play particular roles in chronic inflammation. New data allows subsets of such cells to be delineated and potentially in future targeted to provide new therapies in inflammatory disease. Importantly, Prof. Buckley talks here (and in a recent webinar hosted by the Association of Physicians) about how innovative approaches to inflammatory disease can allow targeting of multiple different diseases, based on a deep understanding of the underlying pathology.

Characterization of a pathogenic nonmigratory fibroblast population in systemic sclerosis skin.

Clark KE, Xu S, Attar M, Ong VH, Buckley CD, Denton CP.JCI Insight. 2025 Apr 15;10(10):e185618. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.185618. eCollection 2025 May 22.PMID: 40232859 Free PMC article.

Molecular and spatial analysis of tertiary lymphoid structures in Sjogren's syndrome.

Nayar S, Turner JD, Asam S, Fennell E, Pugh M, Colafrancesco S, Berardicurti O, Smith CG, Flint J, Teodosio A, Iannizzotto V, Gardner DH, van Roon J, Korsunsky I, Howdle D; Roche Fibroblast Network Consortium; Frei AP, Lassen KG, Bowman SJ, Ng WF, Croft AP, Filer A, Fisher BA, Buckley CD, Barone F.Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 2;16(1):5. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54686-0.PMID: 39747819 Free PMC article.

Wnt signaling drives stromal inflammation in inflammatory arthritis.

Mueller AA, Zou AE, Marsh LJ, Kemble S, Nayar S, Watts GFM, Murphy CL, Taylor E, Major T, Gardner D, Buckley CD, Wei K, Raychaudhuri S, Korsunsky I, Filer A, Croft AP, Brenner MB.bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 Jan 8:2025.01.06.631510. doi: 10.1101/2025.01.06.631510.PMID: 39829745 Free PMC article. Preprint.

Artificial Intelligence is transforming medicine, from diagnostics and drug discovery to personalised treatment and predictive analytics. But alongside its promise come some important challenges: Algorithmic bias, data privacy, accountability and the tension between human judgment and machine intelligence. This webinar brings together medical scientists and academic physicians to explore the realities behind the (potential) hyperbole. An expert faculty will examine how AI can responsibly be integrated into clinical and research practice, what ethical safeguards are essential and how medical professionals can shape the AI-driven future of healthcare.

Dr. Steven Niederer, Imperial College London and Alan Turing Institute

Dr. Steven Niederer is a biomedical engineer specializing in computational heart modeling. After earning his Engineering Science degree in 2003 and a DPhil in Computer Science in 2008, he led the Cardiac Electro-Mechanics Research Group at King’s College London from 2010 to 2023, advancing patient-specific cardiac modeling for clinical use. In 2023, he became Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London and Co-Director of the Digital Twin Turing Research and Innovation Cluster. His current work focuses on enabling digital twin technologies, creating virtual patient cohorts for in-silico trials, linking organ-level and molecular physiology, and using computational models to personalize therapies.

Professor Fu Siong Ng, Imperial College London

Prof Fu Siong Ng is a Professor of Cardiology at Imperial College London and a Consultant Cardiologist across two major NHS trusts. A Clinician Scientist, he leads a British Heart Foundation–funded research programme on the mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias, while also performing ablation procedures and implanting pacemakers and defibrillators. He directs the intercalated BSc in Cardiovascular Sciences at Imperial and serves as Divisional Research Lead for Emergency & Integrated Care at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He is also Theme Lead for Remote Monitoring in Imperial’s 2024–2029 BHF Centre of Research Excellence renewal bid.

Professor Alastair Denniston, University of Birmingham

Professor Alastair Denniston is Chair of the National Commission for the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, guiding the MHRA in creating a new AI regulatory framework due in 2026. He is an NIHR Senior Investigator, Professor of Regulatory Science and Innovation at the University of Birmingham, and a Consultant Ophthalmologist at University Hospitals Birmingham. He directs the UK Centre of Excellence for Regulatory Science and Innovation in AI & Digital Health (CERSI-AI), serves on the UK Government’s Regulatory Horizons Council, and is a Non-Executive Director of the Health Research Authority. His work focuses on advancing safe, effective, and equitable AI-driven health technologies that deliver real-world impact.

CONVENOR

Professor Stuart D Rosen

Consultant Cardiologist, London Northwest and Royal Brompton Hospitals

Professor of Practice (Cardiology), Imperial College, London

Mark Hull talks about the translational research development of the n-3 PUFA EPA as a cancer prevention agent through to phase 2 and 3 clinical trials, touching on design and delivery of trials of ‘nutraceuticals’ like high-dose n-3 PUFAs, and how such an intervention might impact on cancer. Despite proof of concept from a small, randomised trial of EPA in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis, the same dose and formulation of EPA did not reduce overall colorectal polyp risk in the seAFOod polyp prevention trial. Emphasising the importance of the trial tissue biobank, he discusses a secondary genetic analysis of the seAFOod trial, which has uncovered a putative biomarker of EPA response that is more prevalent in people of African and Asian ancestry than those of White European heritage. This highlights the importance of patient diversity in clinical trials. He finishes by discussing latest epidemiological data on dietary n-3 PUFA intake (mainly from fish) and colorectal cancer risk.

Professor Paul Klenerman

Sidney Truelove Professorship of Gastroenterology, Nuffield Department of Medicine; Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

Professor Mark Hull 

PhD FRCP, Leeds Institute of Medical Research, University of Leeds

The opinions of our host and guests are their own; AoP does not endorse any individual viewpoints, given products or companies.

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is a rare autoimmune disease, but also one where a great deal of progress has been made in development of new therapies. Prof Cooper performs clinical trials to understand the impact of new therapies, based upon and also gaining insights into the underlying pathogenesis. The clear readout of platelet count allows for a trial design which can funnel diverse new types of therapy into the translational pathway, and this sort of study has implications more broadly for how we address auto-immunity more generally. This work is a great example of how fundamental understanding of pathology can be turned into new therapies for patients by clinician scientists working at the interface.

The papers discussed look at the role of immune modulation in auto-immune thrombocytopenia, and trial approaches using inhibition of neonatal Fc receptors, as well as inhibition of the BTK molecule. More broadly we discuss the pathogenesis of this disease, how trials are performed and the landscape for future studies.

Safety and efficacy of rilzabrutinib vs placebo in adults with immune thrombocytopenia: the phase 3 LUNA3 study.

Kuter DJ, Ghanima W, Cooper N, Liebman HA, Zhang L, Hu Y, Miyakawa Y, Homenda W, Galindo LEM, Basquiera AL, Tan CW, Saydam G, Hütter-Krönke ML, Chai-Adisaksopha C, Gómez-Almaguer D, Tran H, Shin HJ, Dantas da Cunha Junior A, Lazar Z, Izquierdo CP, Kirgner I, Lucchini E, Kuzmina G, Fillitz M, Audia S, Taparia M, Cordoba M, Diab R, Yao M, Gouia I, Lee M, Daak A.

Blood. 2025 Jun 12;145(24):2914-2926. doi: 10.1182/blood.2024027336.

PMID: 40090011

Inhibition of FcRn with rozanolixizumab in adults with immune thrombocytopenia: Two randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 studies and their open-label extension.

Cooper N, Bussel JB, Kaźmierczak M, Miyakawa Y, Cluck S, Lledó García R, Haier B, Lavrov A, Singh P, Snipes R, Kuter DJ.

Br J Haematol. 2025 Feb;206(2):675-688. doi: 10.1111/bjh.19858. Epub 2024 Nov 18.

PMID: 39552477 

The role of genetic sequencing in the diagnostic workup for chronic immune thrombocytopenia.

Joshi N, Lango-Allen H, Downes K, Simeoni I, Vladescu C, Paul D, Hart A, Ademokun C, Cooper N.

Blood Adv. 2025 Apr 8;9(7):1497-1507. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2024014639.

PMID: 39808791 

Related studies

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp1810479

The Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland presents a discussion with key world leading experts in Malaria vaccines from the World Health Organisation and Oxford. Focusing on how vaccines are transforming Malaria prevention globally. Specifically, looking at the development and implementation of malaria vaccines.

Speakers:

1. Malaria vaccine pilot implementation and results (Mary Hamel, WHO)
2. Malaria vaccine introduction - demand, status, challenges and opportunities (Eliane Pellaux-Furrer, WHO)
3. Next-generation vaccine strategies (Simon Draper, Oxford)

The opinions of our host and guests are their own; AoP does not endorse any individual viewpoints, given products or companies.

Immune Mediated Inflammatory Diseases (IMIDs) are a common and growing problem. Traditional models of research and service delivery silo their management within specific specialities and within adult or paediatric settings. Very often patients with disease in one organ have co-morbid involvement in another, suggesting shared pathogenic pathways. Moreover, IMIDs are often treated in very similar ways (combination therapy) with very similar drugs (steroids and anti TNF biologics). In this seminar we will explore how investigating these diseases in a common manner has led to some startling findings that not only unlock the cellular basis of these diseases but have implications for the rapid assessment of the efficacy of new therapeutic targets in cross-disease translational research studies. 

Speakers: 

Professor Christopher Buckley - Director of Clinical Research, Kennedy Institute, Oxford

Professor Calliope Dendrou - Associate Professor in Clinical Pathology and Inflammation, Kennedy Institute, Oxford

Professor Holm Uhlig - Director, Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford

Convenor:

Professor Paul Klenerman - Truelove chair in the Department of Medicine at Oxford

Professor Paul Klenerman
Sidney Truelove Professorship of Gastroenterology, Nuffield Department of Medicine; Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, MB ChB (Hons), PhD, FRCP, FRCP(E), FFPM, FRSB, FBPhS, FMedSci: Linking genes and drugs. 

 Click here to view the paper