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University of BirminghamExpertise and tasks in the project Members of the Rheumatology Research group at the Birmingham MRC Centre for Immune regulation have a strong research interest in understanding the mechanisms by which Chronic inflammatory joint disease persists. Understanding the earliest stages of inflammatory disease will allow us to develop therapeutic decision tools , identifying precisely those patients who will develop rheumatoid arthritis well before they have any of the classical markers of this disease. As our contribution to Autocure Birmingham will provide a unique clinical resource, analysing synovial fluid and stromal cell samples from patients with very early inflammatory conditions and following them through to determine which patients develop disease and which do not. Samples will be analysed using a range of immunological, biochemical and genomic/proteomic techniques that will facilitate the identification of genes, the proteins they express and their role in key biological processes that regulate leucocyte accumulation in inflammation. We will therefore generate genomic and post-genomic data for processes that we predict will drive the very early stages of inflammatory disease. These predictions will then be validated using the animal models in workpackages 8 and 9 and workpackage 10 will be able to determine if the molecular mechanism identified by our studies can be targeted therapeutically. Our work will form part of workpackages 3 and 4 and we will clearly interact with workpackages 8 - 10 in the later stages of our work. Birmingham will also provide expertise and facilities for training in tissue analysis using laser capture micro dissection and micro array facilities.
Contact
Job opportunity RESEARCH TECHNICIAN (2 POSTS). For more information, www.hr.bham.ac.uk/jobs
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