School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences

Centre for Rheumatic Disease

A European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) Centre of Research Excellence, the centre brings together clinicians, scientists and people living with rheumatic disease to translate discovery into improvements in care.

Our footprint spans two King’s campuses – Guy’s and Denmark Hill – together with our partner hospitals (Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust). Across these settings we integrate:

Translational medicine laboratories delivering bench immunology, cellular & molecular profiling and pre‑clinical therapeutic evaluation.
Data‑science and epidemiology teams harnessing population‑scale resources such as OpenSAFELY to map care quality, disease burden and long‑term outcomes.
Early‑ to late‑phase clinical‑trial infrastructure supporting investigator‑initiated and industry‑sponsored studies – including first‑in‑human CAR‑T‑cell therapy for refractory lupus and dermatomyositis.
A dedicated Patient Partnership Group that co‑creates every project – from identifying unmet need, through protocol design, to analysing, reporting and sharing results.

Diseases we study

Inflammatory arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis)
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and inflammatory myopathies including dermatomyositis
Vasculitides (ANCA‑associated, large‑vessel and others)
Autoimmune driven interstitial lung disease
Sarcoidosis
VEXAS syndrome
IgG4‑related disease
Other orphan connective‑tissue and musculoskeletal disorders

Our methodologies

Quantitative: trials, large observational cohorts, registry analyses (e.g. BSRBR, NEIAA), genomics, multi‑omics and real‑world evidence studies.
Qualitative: mental‑health, psychosocial and health‑services research exploring lived experience and barriers to care.

Professor Andrew Cope

Professor of Rheumatology
Professor James Galloway

Professor of Rheumatology
Dr Elena Nikiphorou

Reader in Rheumatology and Medical Education, and Director of Student Support
Professor Sam Norton

Professor of Medical Statistics & Applied Health Research
Dr Mark Russell

NIHR Advanced Fellow

Honorary Clinical Academics

Professor Tim Vyse
Professor Francis Williams
Professor Bruce Kirkham
Dr Tasanee Braithwaite
Dr Toby Garrood
Dr Patrick Gordon
Dr Nora Ng
Dr Sanjeev Patel
Dr Andrew Rutherford
Dr Chris Wincup
Dr Sophia Steer
Dr Arti Mahto

Multi-color Molecular Visualization of Signaling Proteins Reveals How C-Terminal Src Kinase Nanoclusters Regulate T Cell Receptor Activation.

Simoncelli S, Griffié J, Williamson DJ, Bibby J, Bray C, Zamoyska R, Cope AP, Owen DM. Cell Rep. 2020 Dec 22;33(12):108523. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108523.

A developmental basis for the anatomical diversity of dermis in homeostasis and wound repair.

Usansky I, Jaworska P, Asti L, Kenny FN, Hobbs C, Sofra V, Song H, Logan M, Graham A, Shaw TJ. J Pathol. 2020 Nov 16. doi: 10.1002/path.5589. Online ahead of print.

Imaging neoangiogenesis in rheumatoid arthritis (INIRA): whole-body synovial uptake of a 99mTc-labelled RGD peptide is highly correlated with power Doppler ultrasound.

Attipoe L, Chaabo K, Wajed J, Hassan FU, Shivapatham D, Morrison M, Ballinger J, Cook G, Cope AP, Garrood T. Ann Rheum Dis. 2020 Sep;79(9):1254-1255. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-217228. Epub 2020 Apr 23.

Cholesterol metabolism drives regulatory B cell IL-10 through provision of geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate.

Bibby JA, Purvis HA, Hayday T, Chandra A, Okkenhaug K, Rosenzweig S, Aksentijevich I, Wood M, Lachmann HJ, Kemper C, Cope AP, Perucha E. Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 8;11(1):3412. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17179-4.

IKZF3/Aiolos Is Associated with but Not Sufficient for the Expression of IL-10 by CD4+ T Cells.

Ridley ML, Fleskens V, Roberts CA, Lalnunhlimi S, Alnesf A, O'Byrne AM, Steel KJA, Povoleri GAM, Sumner J, Lavender P, Taams LS. J Immunol. 2020 Jun 1;204(11):2940-2948. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1901283. Epub 2020 Apr 22.

Dissecting Fibroblast Heterogeneity in Health and Fibrotic Disease.

Shaw TJ, Rognoni E. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2020 Jun 19;22(8):33. doi: 10.1007/s11926-020-00903-w.

What We See, What We Do Not See, and What We Do Not Want to See in HLA Class I Immunopeptidomes.

Mishto M. Proteomics. 2020 Jun 12:e2000112. doi: 10.1002/pmic.202000112. Online ahead of print.

Mechanisms of checkpoint inhibition-induced adverse events.

Urwyler P, Earnshaw I, Bermudez M, Perucha E, Wu W, Ryan S, Mcdonald L, Karagiannis SN, Taams LS, Powell N, Cope A, Papa S. Clin Exp Immunol. 2020 May;200(2):141-154. doi: 10.1111/cei.13421. Epub 2020 Feb 21.

Large database for the analysis and prediction of spliced and non-spliced peptide generation by proteasomes.

Specht G, Roetschke HP, Mansurkhodzhaev A, Henklein P, Textoris-Taube K, Urlaub H, Mishto M, Liepe J. Sci Data. 2020 May 15;7(1):146. doi: 10.1038/s41597-020-0487-6.

Tissue-resident macrophages in omentum promote metastatic spread of ovarian cancer.

Etzerodt A, Moulin M, Doktor TK, Delfini M, Mossadegh-Keller N, Bajenoff M, Sieweke MH, Moestrup SK, Auphan-Anezin N, Lawrence T. J Exp Med. 2020 Apr 6;217(4):e20191869. doi: 10.1084/jem.20191869.

Polyfunctional, Proinflammatory, Tissue-Resident Memory Phenotype and Function of Synovial Interleukin-17A+CD8+ T Cells in Psoriatic Arthritis.

Steel KJA, Srenathan U, Ridley M, Durham LE, Wu SY, Ryan SE, Hughes CD, Chan E, Kirkham BW, Taams LS. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2020 Mar;72(3):435-447. doi: 10.1002/art.41156. Epub 2020 Feb 4.

Interleukin-17 in rheumatoid arthritis: Trials and tribulations.

Taams LS.J Exp Med. 2020 Mar 2;217(3):e20192048. doi: 10.1084/jem.20192048.

Phosphatase PTPN22 Regulates Dendritic Cell Homeostasis and cDC2 Dependent T Cell Responses.

Purvis HA, Clarke F, Montgomery AB, Colas C, Bibby JA, Cornish GH, Dai X, Dudziak D, Rawlings DJ, Zamoyska R, Guermonprez P, Cope AP. Front Immunol. 2020 Mar 4;11:376. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.00376. eCollection 2020.

Specific targeting of CD163+ TAMs mobilizes inflammatory monocytes and promotes T cell-mediated tumor regression.

Etzerodt A, Tsalkitzi K, Maniecki M, Damsky W, Delfini M, Baudoin E, Moulin M, Bosenberg M, Graversen JH, Auphan-Anezin N, Moestrup SK, Lawrence T. J Exp Med. 2019 Oct 7;216(10):2394-2411. doi: 10.1084/jem.20182124. Epub 2019 Aug 2.

The cholesterol biosynthesis pathway regulates IL-10 expression in human Th1 cells.

Perucha E, Melchiotti R, Bibby JA, Wu W, Frederiksen KS, Roberts CA, Hall Z, LeFriec G, Robertson KA, Lavender P, Gerwien JG, Taams LS, Griffin JL, de Rinaldis E, van Baarsen LGM, Kemper C, Ghazal P, Cope AP. Nat Commun. 2019 Jan 30;10(1):498. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08332-9.

The departmental Expert Patient/carer Group, led by Heidi Lempp since 2003 is involved in research, under- and postgraduate medical education and health service improvement. Over the last 5 years Patient Education Evenings were offered for patient and carers to Rheumatology outpatient clinic attendees from King’s College- and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Trust three times a year about topics identified by patients relevant to their self-management of their long-term MSK conditions, including providing feedback to researchers about study ideas and findings.

Read the blog