Our ambition is to move beyond the long-term suppression of inflammation towards therapeutic approaches that promote disease resolution, restore healthy tissue function and ultimately enable sustained, drug-free remission.
The Centre takes a cross-disease and cross-tissue approach to restorative immunology.
Our initial disease areas are:
Our research encompasses the tissues affected by these diseases, including synovium, salivary gland, gut and liver, alongside relevant immune compartments and biological samples.
A central feature of our approach is to look beyond individual diseases to identify biological mechanisms that are shared across diseases and tissues, as well as those that are disease or tissue specific.
The Centre’s research programme connects three complementary areas:
Using and integrating high-dimensional biological and clinical data to understand health, disease, remission and relapse, and to identify pathways and mechanisms with therapeutic potential.
Understanding and validating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that promote resolution of inflammation, restore immune regulation and support the return of diseased tissues towards a healthy state.
Translating discoveries into experimental medicine studies and therapeutic approaches, including the development of tissue-based measures of treatment response and strategies designed to achieve sustained freedom from disease.
These areas work together as a translational pipeline rather than as separate areas of research. The Centre brings together expertise in data science, tissue immunology, clinical studies, experimental medicine and health economics to support this approach.
Research supported through the Centre should make a clear contribution to our overarching ambition in restorative immunology.
Projects and activities may contribute by:
Projects do not need to address every aspect of the Centre’s research programme or span all three research areas. They should, however, demonstrate a clear and meaningful connection to the Centre’s scientific ambition rather than simply falling within a particular disease area.
The Centre is designed to break down traditional scientific, institutional and sector boundaries. We particularly encourage research that brings together complementary expertise and creates meaningful connections across disciplines, institutions, diseases or tissues.
Depending on the nature of the work, this may include collaboration with researchers from other disciplines and institutions, patients and the public, industry and biotechnology partners, charities, healthcare organisations and other external partners.
Our aim is to create a collaborative research environment in which different expertise can be brought together to accelerate the translation of discoveries into new approaches for patients.
This research remit provides a common reference point for activities supported through the MRC Centre of Research Excellence in Restorative Immunology.
Individual funding calls and opportunities, including doctoral studentships and flexible funding schemes, may have additional eligibility requirements, assessment criteria or priorities. These will be set out for each opportunity.
