OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a complex and heterogeneous inflammatory disorder, where many patients (but not all) display clear autoimmune features characterized by MHC class II association and autoantibody production. Disease develops gradually during a long time period with different compartments being the site of initiation (lung) versus disease precipitation (joints). A functional understanding of this stepwise process is emerging.
We study B and T cells and their effector functions in blood, joints and lungs of RA patients. We utilize peptide – HLA-DR-tetramers as well as antigen-tetramers (for specific T and B cell capture respectively).
Expression of recombinant IgG (BCR) from RA-derived B cells has e.g. revealed an inflammation-independent, but autoimmune, mechanism for pain and bone erosion, explaining some of the conundrums of early aggressive disease.
The possibility to capture antigen-specific lymphocytes is currently applied for immunosurveillance of the autoimmune lymphocyte repertoire in RA patients over time and in response to therapeutic intervention.
