UCL Eastman Dental Institute

Professor Brian Henderson

Name:	Brian Henderson	Email:	brian.henderson@ucl.ac.uk
Title:	Professor	Tel:	+44 (0)20 3456 1190
Qualifications:	PhD	Fax:	+44 (0)20 3456 1190
Position:	Boissard Chair Cell Biology	Address:	Division of Microbial Diseases UCL Eastman Dental Institute 256 Gray's Inn Road London WC1X 8LD UK

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Background

Professor Henderson graduated in 1972 with an honours degree in Biochemistry and after a one year postgraduate course in bioengineering started his PhD in 1974 in the Division of Cellular Biology of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, London studying the cell biology of synovial lining cells in rheumatoid arthritis.
After gaining his PhD in 1977, Professor Henderson spent a year in the Department of Medicine at McGill University, Montreal, Canada working on thyroid disease. Returning to the University of London he started working on experimental arthritis with Professor Leonard Glynn and Dr Norman Staines at the Kennedy Institute. This was followed by two years working at King's College London with Dr Staines studying the role of anti-idiotypic antibodies in the control of collagen-induced arthritis.

In 1983 Professor Henderson took up a lectureship in Chemical Pathology at King's College Hospital Medical School working with Professor Mervyn Smith. In 1984 he joined the Department of Pharmacology of the Wellcome Research Laboratories in Kent then run by Dr (now Professor) Salvador Moncada FRS. During the 5 years spent at the Wellcome Laboratories Professor Henderson managed two multidisciplinary teams developing: (i) cytokine inhibitors and (ii) inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases. Professor Henderson became Head of the Anti-inflammatory Section in the Department of Pharmacology. In 1989 Professor Henderson joined the Biotechnology Company, Celltech Therapeutics, as Head of Immunobiology - in which post he was responsible for the pharmacological studies of anti-cytokine antibodies and for testing metalloproteinase inhibitors.

In 1990 Professor Henderson joined the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit as Senior Lecturer and set up the Cellular Microbiology Research Group. In 1993 the Boissard Chair of Biochemistry was established with Professor Henderson as the incumbent. In 1999 the title of the chair was changed to Cell Biology. Much of the work done by Professor Henderson is in collaboration with Professor Wilson's Microbiology group. This collaborative grouping is devoted to the study of the interactions of bacteria with eukaryotic cells.
Professor Henderson is on the Advisory Board of Inflammation Research and the Editorial Board of Cell Biochemistry and Function and the Journal of Periodontal Research. He has served on the Scientific Sub-committee of the Arthritis Research Campaign and the Society for General Microbiology, Microbial Infection Committee.

Current Research

Professor Henderson's research centres around the interactions of bacteria with myeloid and lymphoid cells and this work is done in collaboration with Professor Wilson's group. The research can be divided into three project areas which all relate to cytokine biology: The average human body contains ten times as many bacteria as it does human cells. This enormous number of bacteria,which constitutes the normal microflora, does not cause inflammation. As these bacteria contain many pro-inflammatory components the failure to induce inflammation is paradoxical. Professors Henderson and Wilson have developed the hypothesis that the failure of the normal microflora to cause inflammation is due to their production of anti-inflammatory cytokine-like molecules which have been termed microkines. The Cellular Microbiology Group is attempting to identify, isolate and characterise such proteins by using protein biochemistry and gene cloning and expression. It is proposed that such proteins represent the anti-inflammatory therapeutics of the future. Professors Henderson and Wilson, in collaboration with Dr John Ward and Dr Don Cowan of the Molecular Microbiology Group in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UCL, have set up a company called Penteos Therapeutics to advance these ideas commercially.

Professor Henderson has been instrumental in establishing that the intracellular protein-folding proteins known as chaperonins are potent inducers of bone resorption and of myeloid cell cytokine synthesis. It is proposed that these chaperonins play a key role in bacterial infections of bone and in bacterial infections generally in which they may represent a major stimulus for cytokine induction. Human chaperonins may also be involved in idiopathic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis and there is good evidence for their involvement in atherogenesis.
The interaction of bacteria with bone cells has been actively studied over the past few years and it has been established that bacteria contain a number of molecules, in addition to chaperonins, which can modulate bone cell behaviour to either inhibit bone matrix synthesis or stimulate bone matrix breakdown. Bacterial protein with such actions are being cloned using phage display and direct activity screening strategies.

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Publications

Professor Henderson is the author of 180 scientific papers and reviews and has published nine books, one monograph and two PharmaConnect Reports on Arthritis Therapy.

Books

Wilson M, McNab R, Henderson B. Bacterial Disease Mechanisms: An Introduction to Cellular Microbiology. Cambridge University Press 2002.

Higgs, G.A., Henderson, B. Novel Cytokine Inhibitors. Birkhauser: Basel 2000.

Henderson B, McNab R, Wilson M, Lax A. Cellular Microbiology: Prokaryotic-Eukaryotic Interactions in Health and Disease. John Wiley: Chichester 1999.

Henderson B, Poole S, Wilson M. Bacteria/cytokine Interactions in Health and Disease . Portland Press:London 1998.

Arnett TR, Henderson B. Methods in Bone Biology . Chapman & Hall: London 1998

Henderson B, Bodmer MW. Therapeutic Modulation of Cytokines . CRC Press: Boca Raton 1996.

Henderson B, Edwards JCW, Pettipher ER. Mechanisms and Models in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Academic Press: London 1995.

Recent papers