DoM External Seminar: Dr Eve Smith, University of Liverpool

'Patient-centred, target-driven: Revolutionising cSLE management through international T2T collaborations'

Dr Eve Smith
NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer
Women's & Children's Health
University of Liverpool

Host: Professor Coziana ciurtin
Department for Inflammation

Wednesday 31st January 2024 at 13:00
This seminar will be presented in Second Floor Seminar Room of the Rayne Buiding and will also run on Teams (link).
The presenter and host will be logging in virtually and will not be in the room for this presentation

Dr Eve Smith, is a Senior Clinical Fellow, Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences, University of Liverpool and Honorary Consultant Paediatric Rheumatologist, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Trust. Eve undertook her undergraduate training at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2005. Her postgraduate training in paediatrics commenced in Newcastle-upon Tyne. Between 2013-16 she undertook a PhD at the University of Liverpool supervised by Professor Michael Beresford focused on ‘Developing a Lupus Nephritis (LN) urinary biomarker panel in children for use in a clinical trial’, working as part of the UK's only Experimental Arthritis Treatment Centre for Children (EATC4Children). During her PhD she developed a panel of biomarkers for identification of active LN identification and validated these results in two independent international cohorts (from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, US, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa). A subsequent longitudinal study identified one of the urinary biomarkers (AGP) to be predictive of flare, and another (Ceruloplasmin) to predict LN remission. Eve was awarded the Merck Millipore Grant prize, receiving a MAGPIX Luminex Multiplex Instrument, and also an MRC Confidence in Concept grant, which facilitated collaborative development and validation of a custom multiplex assay, with industry partner Merck Millipore. See Video Summary of Dr Eve Smiths PhD. This assay has also been used as part of a collaboration with the BILAG-BR and MRC MASTERPLANS Consortium, demonstrating that these biomarkers can also identify active LN in adult SLE, and help predict response to rituximab treatment.

As an NIHR ACL, and now as a Senior Clinical Fellow, Eve's main focus has been on developing the TARGET LUPUS research programme (Targeting disease, Agreeing Recommendations, and reducing Glucocorticoids through Effective Treatment, in LUPUS), which ultimately aims to develop a T2T approach for cSLE. With T2T, treatment is intensified until a certain pre-determined ‘target’ is reached, and re-intensified again if the target is lost. CSLE patients have been shown to be more severely affected than adults with SLE (aSLE), with a higher disease activity and medication burden, more severe organ manifestations, and higher standardised mortality rates. CSLE patients are also at high risk of accruing permanent organ damage, and suffer from significantly lower health-related quality of life than healthy children. There is increasing International interest in the use of T2T in cSLE and aSLE, as a means to aggressively control disease activity early, prevent organ damage, and improve quality of life.

Dr Smith serves as Chair of the PReS SLE Working Party and co-lead of the International cSLE Treat to Target (T2T) Task Force. Her leadership is central to advancing cSLE T2T Analysis across Global Registries, for which she, along with CARRA collaborators has recently received the prestigious 2023 FOREUM/Rheumatology Research Foundation Collaborative Partnership Award. In 2022, Dr. Smith's commitment to excellence in lupus research was honoured with the Medical Research Foundation Emerging Lupus Leaders Prize. Dr Smith also has a particular interest in involving young people and parents in in all aspect of her research. As a founding member of World yOung Rheumatic Diseases Day (WORD Day) Committee, Dr. Smith contributes to raising global awareness of paediatric rheumatic diseases.

• Profile University of Liverpool

The seminars are open to UCL & UCLH staff, students and their visitors. Please contact alison.kelly@ucl.ac.uk for all enquires  
Audience members: Please ensure that your mic is muted and video turned off during the talk. There will be a 10-minute Q&A at the end of the talk. Please ensure that you use the ‘raise hand’ function if you would like to ask a question. Thank you.