The Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Restorative Immunology is a seven-year programme running from October 2026 to September 2033. It brings together researchers, clinicians and partners to understand how immune-mediated inflammatory diseases can be resolved. Our goal is to restore healthy immune function and tissue health.
Our ambition is to change how immune-mediated inflammatory diseases are understood and treated. Rather than focusing only on suppressing inflammation, we want to understand how to restore diseased tissues to a genuinely healthy state.
We will identify the cellular and molecular processes that resolve inflammation and restore immune balance. Through this work, we aim to create the scientific foundations for new approaches that can deliver sustained, drug-free remission.
Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases can affect people throughout life and cause lasting damage to tissues and organs. Treatments have transformed care, but they mainly work by suppressing inflammation. For many people, disease returns when treatment stops.
Restorative immunology asks a different question: what does it take to return diseased tissue to a genuinely healthy state? We will study the processes that resolve inflammation, repair tissue and restore immune balance. Our aim is to identify new ways to achieve lasting remission rather than continued control of disease.
The Centre studies immune-mediated inflammatory diseases across different organs and stages of life. Our initial focus includes inflammatory arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune liver disease and Sjögren’s disease. We will study tissues including synovium, gut, liver and salivary glands.
Although these diseases affect different parts of the body, they can share biological processes that determine whether inflammation persists or resolves. Studying diseases and tissues together allows us to identify mechanisms of restoration that are shared across conditions. It also helps us understand mechanisms that are specific to individual tissues.
We will also study blood and other relevant tissues. By following patients over time, we can investigate how immune and tissue states change during disease, treatment and remission.
Our scientific programme has three connected Research Streams: Data Exploration, Mechanisms of Tissue Restoration and Experimental Medicine. Together, they create a translational cycle connecting patient samples and data with laboratory research and experimental medicine.
The Research Streams are supported by Centre-wide activities. These include training and development, research culture, patient and public involvement and engagement, data governance, clinical studies, and knowledge exchange and commercial engagement. Together, these activities connect researchers across disciplines and institutions and provide the infrastructure needed to deliver our scientific ambitions.
Collaboration is central to the Centre. Researchers, clinicians, research professionals, patients and public contributors, and external partners can contribute through Research Streams, working groups, Centre activities and events.
The Centre brings together researchers and clinical teams from the University of Birmingham, University of Oxford, University of Glasgow, UCL, Newcastle University, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge and Kyoto University.
Together, our partners provide expertise in immunology, clinical research, data science, tissue biology and experimental medicine. Working across institutions and disciplines allows us to combine expertise, patient cohorts, technologies and research infrastructure that no single institution could provide alone.
We also work with organisations beyond our university partners. These include industry, charities, healthcare organisations and patient groups. They bring additional expertise and capabilities into the Centre and can help us translate research towards patient benefit.
The Centre has a governance structure that provides clear scientific and strategic leadership while supporting collaboration across our institutions, Research Streams and wider activities.
Find out more about our research, the people and organisations involved, and opportunities to work with and contribute to the Centre.
Explore our scientific programme and three connected Research Streams.
Meet the people and institutions working across the Centre.
Find opportunities for patients and the public, researchers, students and partner organisations to engage with the Centre.
