REINVENT FOCiS Centre of Excellence

Immunology. Rheumatology. Gender Diversity

The vision of the FOCIS Centre of Excellence - University College London Centre for gender inclusive research inflammation immunity focused on childhood and adolescence (REINVENT) is to integrate and lead multi-disciplinary inclusive research from across our teams, working with paediatric adolescent and young adult individuals who have autoimmune / inflammatory conditions and age matched healthy gender-diverse individuals.

Our aims

We aim to support background and gender-diverse research with relevance for advancement of knowledge related to sex/gender determinants of biologic functions and impact on health of a gender-diverse society, with focus on chronic inflammatory and autoimmune rheumatic conditions that are characterised by sex bias:

• childhood lupus (cSLE)
• childhood Sjögren’s Disease (cSjD)
• juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM)
• juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Research

Our programme of research is focused on three themes:

Sex and Immunity

We evaluate the impact of sex-/gender-diversity on immunology and disease outcomes by disaggregating the influence of sex chromosomes from that of sex hormones, through investigating gender-diverse cohorts. We are unique in being able to study these sex/gender determinants across age from children, through adolescence and in young adults.

Precision Medicine

Building on our published work, we will optimise use of our extensive multi-omic data and machine learning to define tools to predict outcome, comorbidity risks (e.g. cardiovascular risk in cSLE) and treatment response for children and adolescents with immune mediated diseases (JIA, cSLE)

Myositis with onset in childhood

We lead the world’s largest in-depth longitudinal cohort of JDM with detailed data and linked biobank. Our current research focus includes interplay between type-I IFN and mitochondrial dysfunction in myositis, tissue biology in JDM skin/muscle, novel treatment studies (e.g. UK clinical trial of JAK inhibitor about to open), and biomarkers to predict response to treatments and comorbidity risk.

Steering committee

• Prof. Derek Gilroy, PhD (Immunology, Director of UCL ARR)
• Prof. Gary Butler, MD (adolescent transgender health)
• Assoc. Prof. Thomas McDonnell, PhD (Immunology/Biochemistry)
• Dr Polly Livermore, PhD Nursing (Paediatric Rheumatology engagement/research and academic training co-lead, GOSH BRC)
• Dr George Robinson, PhD (Immunology);
• Dr Meredyth Wilkinson, PhD (Paediatric Immunology/myositis)
• Dr Hannah Peckham, PhD (Immunology/Transgender community involvement expert);
• Dr Ania Radziszewska, PhD (Immunology);
• Dr Muthana Al Obaidi (Paediatric Rheumatology Consultant, GOSH)

Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)

• Prof. Stacy Ardoin (SA), MD (Ohio, US - Paediatric clinical trials, transition of care / large biobank / biorepository management)
• Dr Laura Lewandowski, MD (NIH, US - Genetic studies, multi-omics integration/global research in cSLE)
• Dr Scott Lieberman, MD, PhD (Iowa, US, Mechanistic immunology studies on animal models of cSjD)
• Dr Sabine Hannema, PhD (UMC Amsterdam, Endocrinology / Transgender health)
• Dr Andy Mammen MD, PhD (NIAMS NIH USA, Myositis)
• Prof. Ines Pineda-Torra, PhD (CABIMER, Seville immune-metabolism/omics analyses)
• Prof. Pierre Donnes, PhD (Sci-Cross Sweden/UC Immunology / Bioinformatics)
• Dr Clare Deakin, PhD (Sydney, Australia, Statistics / Bioinformatics)
• Dr Emma Chambers, PhD (Queen Mary University of London UK, Immunology / post-menopause studies)
• Dr Kate Webb, PhD (Cape Town, South Africa, Paediatrics / Immunology)

Trainee representative

• Mr Junjie Peng, PhD student (UCL, Immunology / Bioinformatics

Junior faculty representative

• Dr Merry Wilkinson, PhD (UCL ICH, Paediatric immunology / Myositis)

Relevant publications

1. Allalou A, Peng J, Robinson GA, Marruganti C, D'Aiuto F, Butler G, Jury EC, Ciurtin C (2023). Impact of puberty, sex determinants and chronic inflammation on cardiovascular risk in young people. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023 Jun 27;10: 1191119.
2. Robinson GA, Peckham H, Jury EC, Taneja V, Ciurtin C (2022). Editorial: Sex bias in autoimmunity: From animal models to clinical research and applications. Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Dec 13;9: 1112966.
3. Robinson GA, Peng J, Peckham H, Butler G, Pineda-Torra I, Ciurtin C, Jury EC (2022). Investigating sex differences in T regulatory cells from cisgender and transgender healthy individuals and patients with autoimmune inflammatory disease: a cross-sectional study. Lancet Rheumatol. 2022 Aug 31;4(10): e710-e724.
4. Peckham H, Webb K, Rosser EC, Butler G, Ciurtin C (2022). Gender-Diverse Inclusion in Immunological Research: Benefits to Science and Health. Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Jul 14;9: 909789.
5. Robinson GA, Pineda-Torra I, Ciurtin C, Jury EC (2022). Sex Differences in Lipid Metabolism: Implications for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Cardiovascular Disease Risk. Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 May 31;9: 914016.
6. Robinson GA, Pineda-Torra I, Ciurtin C, Jury EC (2021). Predicting long-term cardiometabolic risk: Do childhood metabolomic signatures hold the key? EBioMedicine. 2021 Dec;74: 103702.
7. Robinson GA, Peng J, Peckham H, Radziszewska A, Butler G, Pineda-Torra I, Jury EC, Ciurtin C (2021). Sex hormones drive changes in lipoprotein metabolism. iScience. 2021 Oct 11;24(11): 103257.
8. Peckham H, de Gruijter NM, Raine C, Radziszewska A, Ciurtin C, Wedderburn LR, Rosser EC, Webb K, Deakin CT (2020). Male sex identified by global COVID-19 meta-analysis as a risk factor for death and ITU admission. Nat Commun. 2020 Dec 9;11(1): 6317.