Our research
About our research group
The Rheumatology Research Group (RRG) is based in the Department of Inflammation and Ageing in the College of Medicine and Health.
The Department has major research themes in Inflammation, Ageing, Trauma, Regeneration and Repair. These research themes are linked to the clinical disciplines of Clinical Immunology, Neurology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, Ophthalmology, Gastroenterology and Respiratory Medicine. Academic Rheumatology in Birmingham is therefore ideally placed to act as a focus for translational clinical research in inflammation, where a clear understanding of how immune cells behave in inflamed microenvironments is likely to be of critical importance for future experimental medicine studies.
The Rheumatology Research Group (RRG) at the University of Birmingham has released a report which includes our ongoing research projects, what it's like being a patient research partner, and some useful links. You can find the report available to download below:
University of Birmingham Rheumatology Research Group (RRG) Report [PDF, 2.20MB]
Aims of our research
The overarching objective of our Rheumatology Research Group is to improve clinical outcomes for those with, and at risk of developing, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) by developing diagnostic tests, drugs, cell based therapies and lifestyle assessments to predict, prevent and reverse disease pathology.
A unique feature of our translational research is that we have pioneered a first in class, “process-driven pathway-focused” approach to the biology of inflammatory arthritis:
- To improve clinical outcomes for those with, and at risk of developing, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
- To discover and improve tests used to make diagnoses and to predict disease course from the earliest stages of symptoms
- To explore therapeutic targeting of the tissue microenvironment and compare and contrast the biological processes underpinning the development, maintenance and resolution of inflammation
- To compare shared biological mechanisms across a number of traditionally independent organ based medical disciplines in order to develop biologically meaningful and therapeutically tractable process-driven links to other disease areas in inflammation biology