Ageing and Frailty

We aim not just to understand the mechanisms that underlie the loss of immune function or musculoskeletal health but to use this knowledge to develop interventions, both lifestyle and pharmacological, to improve health in older adults and trauma victims.  To do so, we employ all elements of the translational pipeline with access to clinical populations at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. 

• 2022  Analysis of Preplatelets and Their Barbell Platelet Derivatives by Imaging Flow Cytometry.
• 2022  Delirium and COVID-19: a narrative review of emerging evidence.
• 2022  Effect of Exercise on Acute Senescent Lymphocyte Counts: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
• 2022  Effect of Regional vs General Anesthesia on Incidence of Postoperative Delirium in Older Patients Undergoing Hip Fracture Surgery: The RAGA Randomized Trial.
• 2021  Synovial tissue from sites of joint pain in knee osteoarthritis patients exhibits a differential phenotype with distinct fibroblast subsets.
• 2021 Physical, cognitive and mental health impacts of COVID-19 following hospitalisation – a multi-centre prospective cohort study.
• 2021 Ageing of the microbiome: potential influences on immunesenenscence and inflammaging.
• 2021 A brief history of nearly EV-erything - The rise and rise of extracellular vesicles.
• 2021 Understanding the role of host metabolites in induction of immunesenescence: future strategies for keeping the healthy ageing population healthy.
• 2021  Perspective: Targeting ageing cells improves survival.
• 2021 Effect of Platelet-Rich Plasma Injection vs Sham Injection on Tendon Dysfunction in Patients With Chronic Midportion Achilles Tendinopathy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
• 2020 BCAT1 affects mitochondrial metabolism independently of leucine transamination in activated human macrophages.
• 2020 Regulation of the Inflammatory Synovial Fibroblast Phenotype by Metastasis-Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma Transcript 1 Long Noncoding RNA in Obese Patients With Osteoarthritis. 
• 2020 Autophagy in T cells from aged donors is maintained by spermidine, and correlates with function and vaccine responses.
• 2019 Lactate buildup at the site of chronic inflammation promotes disease by inducing CD4+ T cell metabolic rewiring.
• 2019 Mechanobiology of Macrophages: how physical factors co-regulate macrophage plasticity.
• 2018 Development and clinical validation of the Genedrive point-of-care test for qualitative detection of Hepatitis C virus.
• 2018 Downsizing the inflammatory response of macrophages by cell confinement.  

• 2022-2025, MRC UKRI, £1,322,218

Project:  MICA: Synovial fibroblast pain pathotypes: A roadmap to understanding and targeting the complexity of patient-reported joint pain in osteoarthritis (Lead investigator: Simon Jones).

• 2022-2024, MRC-BBSRC Ageing Network, £211,530

Project: Food for added life years: Putting research into action (Co-investigator: Niharika Duggal).

• 2022-2024,  BBSRC, £200,000

Project: Establishing a network to catalyse collaboration for reducing immune ageing (CARINA) (Co-Investigator: Janet Lord).

• 2022 - 2024, National Institute for Health Research, £249,927

Project: WHiTE-DECI: World Hip Trauma Evaluation – Delirium and Cognitive Impairment; a randomised feasibility trial comparing severity of delirium symptomatology between hip fracture patients 60 years and over treated with a peri-operative infusion of anti-TNF or placebo (Co-Investigator: Thomas Jackson).

• 2022-2023, Scar Free Foundation, £120,000

Project: Does major trauma accelerate the ageing process and can it be alleviated by physical activity? (Lead investigator: Janet Lord).

• 2021 – 2024, National Institute for Health Research, £2,495,158

Project: OPTIMising therapies, disease trajectories, and AI assisted clinical management for patients Living with complex multimorbidity (OPTIMAL study) (lead investigator: Thomas Jackson).

• 2021-2023, Academy of Medical Sciences (Springboard Award), £100,000

Project: Gut microbiome dysbiosis and immune ageing: investigating associations and potential for novel therapies (Lead investigator: Niharika Duggal).

• 2021-2023, Academy of Medical Sciences (Newton Fellowship), £99,000

Project: Understanding the influence of physical activity on ageing processes (Lead investigator:  Amanda Sardeli).

• 2020-2023, MRC Research Grant, £591,000

Project: Lactate as an inflammatory early signal in ectopic lymphoid neogenesis and its translational impact in patients with autoimmune diseases (Lead investigator: Claudio Mauro).

• 2020-2023, M . BHF PhD studentship, £107,000

Project: Measurement of EV in cardiovascular disease using a novel interferometric method (Lead supervisors: Paul Harrison  and Thomas)

• 2020-2022, Marie-Curie Fellowship, €225,000

Project: Dissecting the impact of lactate in tuberculosis (Lead investigator:  Alba Llibre).

• 2020 - 2022 Swiss National Foundation (SNF) SPARK, £70,000

Project: Understanding nuclear mechanical properties of monocytes for rapid diagnosis of inflammation (Lead investigator: Nikhil Jain).

• 2018-2022, Versus Arthritis, £201,248

Project: Obesity-associated joint inflammation in patients with osteoarthritis: The role of long non-coding RNAs (Lead investigator: Simon Jones).

• 2017-2022, Versus Arthritis, £228,668

Project: Are synovitis-associated lncRNAs central regulators of inflammatory pain in patients with knee OA: A route to identifying a novel analgesic drug for OA patients  (Lead investigator: Simon Jones).