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Imperial College London Eric Bywater Centre Rheumatology section |
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Imperial College London Eric Bywater Centre Rheumatology section |
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3. Marina Botto, professor, group leader Imperial College Rheumathology Section Eric Baywaters Centre Faculty of Medicine Imperial College , Hammersmith Campus London W12 ONN United Kingdom Fax: +44 20 8743 3109 Email address: m.botto@ic.ac.uk http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/divisions/medicine/rheumatology/default.html. Imperial College London - The Faculty of Medicine was established in 1997, bringing together all t he major West London medical schools into one world-class institution. The Faculty is one of Europe's largest medical institutions - in terms of its staff and student population and its research income. Recently the Faculty of Medicine has been ranked 4th in world for biomedicine. For more information please have a look at our website: http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/default.html. The group led by Marina Botto is part of the Faculty of Medicine and is located on the main clinical research campus of the Imperial College at Hammersmith Hospital. In the laboratory there is a broad spectrum of research with a particular emphasis on the application of the modern genetic techniques to questions relevant to understanding the pathogenesis of disease and developing new approaches to treatment. The group was the first to develop methods for studying the clearance and formation of soluble immune complexes in vivo in humans and to demonstrate abnormalities of immune complex processing in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In the last ten years we have developed mice deficient in complement proteins, including C1q, C2, Factor B, CD59, CD93, Factor H, and in the serum amyloid P component (SAP). Mice with C1q deficiency and SAP deficiency develop lupus-like diseases and are powerful models for the analysis of the mechanisms predisposing to the development of systemic autoimmunity. We have extensive expertise in the genetic analysis of SLE, both in mice and humans. We were the first to describe a clear association between an in vivo defect in clearance of apoptotic cells and the development of autoimmunity and spontaneous renal damage. We have also developed models of inflammatory injury in mice and studied how complement deficiency affects the resolution of inflammation. In particular the analysis of Factor H deficient mice, led by Dr MC Pickering, who is part of the research team, demonstrated that uncontrolled complement activation is essential for the development of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. The group has considerable experience in spontaneous and experimental models of nephritis with renal histological analysis supervised by Prof. HT Cook, Renal Histopathologist, who is part of the research team. The laboratory is fully equipped with access to a modern transgenic facility, an embryonic stem cell laboratory, and extensive tissue culture, molecular biologicy and sequencing facilities. There are first rank computing and library facilities. The Hammersmith Campus, in which the investigators work, has core facilities in flow cytometry, DNA technology, microarray analysis, proteomic analysis and animal experimentation. The laboratory led by Prof Botto is part of the Rheumatology Section. This Section is based on the Hammersmith campus and for more information please have a look at the website: Appointed research fellows Experienced researcher: Danielle
Paixao-Cavalcante, Brazil Rose KL, Paixao-Cavalcante D, Fish J,
Manderson AP, Malik TH, Bygrave AE, Lin T, Sacks SH, Walport MJ, Cook HT,
Botto M, Pickering MC. Factor I is required for the development of
membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis in factor H-deficient mice. J Clin |
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