Founded in 1982
Celebrating over 35 years of science
Over 330 publications to date
Multi-disciplinary international team
The Translational Research Immunology Group (TRIG) is interested in translational aspects of immunological research in transplantation, cancer and autoimmunity. Our group is a dynamic, multi-disciplinary international team of around 20 scientists, clinician scientists and students.
The focus of our research has been the exploration of the mechanisms and features of immunological tolerance with the goal of translating our research from the lab into the clinic.
Our principal aims are:
- Answering important basic science questions in immune regulation
- Linking these with clinical observations
- Training the next generation of scientists
- Developing cellular therapies and assessing these in clinical trials
Our work spans from the investigation of basic biology of regulatory T cells and other regulatory immune cells, via translational research in pre-clinical and clinical settings to the clinical trials investigating our translational innovations.
Our technical expertise includes:
- Spatial profiling (Nanosting GeoMx)
- Flow cytometry and cell sorting
- Immune monitoring in clinical trials
- Multiplex gene expression analysis (Nanostring nCounter)
- Complexed primary immune cells expansions
- Pre-clinical in vivo models
Our work is supported with substantial funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, and the European Union. We also receive funding from KRUK (Kidney Research UK), RESTORE (Burn and Wound Research), RCS (Royal College of Surgeons), Oxford-BMS Fellowship Programme, OHSRC (Oxfordshire Health Research Services Committee), the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the University of Oxford Medical Research Fund - we are grateful to all our funders for allowing us to continue with our research.
Our team
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Fadi Issa
Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery
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Joanna Hester
University Research Lecturer
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Monica Dolton
Research Project Manager
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Sushma Shankar
NIHR Clinical Lecturer in General Surgery & Transplantation
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Hisashi Hashimoto
DPhil student
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Oliver McCallion
DPhil candidate and Clinical Research Fellow
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Matthew Brook
NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer
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Amy Cross
Postdoctoral Scientist
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Helen Stark
DPhil student and Clinical Research Fellow in Plastic Surgery
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Sabrina Wright
MSc (Res) Student
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Marie Sion
DPhil student
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Kathryn Wood
Emeritus Professor of Immunology
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Megan Jones
DPhil student
Congratulations to ...
January 2022
Many congratulations to Alaa Alzhrani and George Adigbli who have both successfully defended their DPhil viva. George continues to work with us in TRIG and Alaa has returned to Saudi Arabia to continue her career in academia.
2021
NDS Staff Awards
Joanna Hester and the ONE Study team who are winners of the NDS Scientific Achievement of the Year
Amy Cross who was one of the winners of the "NDS COVID Champion - Academic Researcher" award.
The ceremony was held during the NDS Away Day Garden Party in the beautiful Oxford Botanic Garden on Thursday 9 September 2021. Plaques and certificates were awarded to staff in recognition of their achievements and hard work.
31 July 2020
Two prestigious Fellowships awarded to TRIG members
Many congratulations to Helen Stark who has been awarded a Royal College of Surgeons of England Fellowship and to Ollie (Oliver) McCallion who has been awarded an MRC Fellowship. Helen and Ollie are both undertaking a DPhil in TRIG.
3rd July 2020
Dr Fadi Issa, who has been made an Associate Professor (Academic Plastic Surgery and Transplantation) and Dr Joanna Hester, who has been awarded a University Research Lecturership (Transplant Immunology) in the recent recognition exercise. Many congratulations to them both on their achievements.
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THE ONE STUDY TEAM :
The results of the ONE Study have been published in a paper in the Lancet as follows:
Sawitzski, Birgit et al: Regulatory cell therapy in kidney Transplantation (The ONE Study): A harmonised design and analysis of seven non-randomised, single-arm, phase 1/2A trials. Lancet 2020 May 23;395(10237):1627-1639.
Speaking about the achievement, Professor Kathryn Wood said:
"This is the culmination of in depth research in the TRIG laboratory investigating how specialised cells known as regulatory T cells, that form part of everyone’s immune system can be used as a cell therapy to help the treatment of patients who need a life saving transplant
An outstanding example of multidisciplinary collaboration within Oxford, as well as nationally and internationally".
RESTORE
TRIG are pleased to announce that we are part of the RESTORE community which has just been awarded with funding for the prepatory phase.
RESTORE is a Large scale Research Initiative, funded by the EU. It is designed to be a “place” where medicine, basic research, technology development and engineering meet, communicate and work together: to tackle grand interdisciplinary science and technology challenges and to find novel solutions.
To find out more about the initiative please go to: https://www.restore-h2020.eu/home
TRIG takes part in the IF Oxford science festival
TRIG team members took part in the IF Oxford science and ideas festival recently, with an interactive story called 'The heroes and villains in transplantation - Can you sort them out?' which showed how an upcoming clinical trial, called The TWO Study, will sort 'good' protective cells from 'bad' cells that cause transplant rejection and how this might help save lives.
Pictured above are: George Adigbli, Sabrina Wright, Dr Mathew Brook, Dr Joanna Hester and Cosmo Tullar.
Read the full story here: https://www.nds.ox.ac.uk/news/nds-at-if-oxford
Thinking of becoming an ACF? Want to know what it's like?
See David Fawkner-Corbett's profile and read about his research.
The Andrew Bushell Memorial Travel Fund Awards
Dr Andrew Bushell, a key member of the Wood Lab / TRIG passed away in December 2016 after a period of illness.
As a way to celebrate Andrew’s career and all of his contributions to the success of the group a travel fund has been set up to help provide travel bursaries for graduate students and early career researchers to attend meetings. Andrew was passionate about educating and training young scientists and was very proud of the achievements of all of the students and fellows that have been members of the Wood Lab/TRIG over the years.
If you would like to contribute to the fund please follow the link below.
www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/bushell-memorial-travel
If you would like any further information about the fund, please contact Monica Dolton: monica.dolton@nds.ox.ac.uk
We offer many congratulations to Rebeca Arroyo Hornero and Jessica Padley who are the first two recipients of the Andrew Bushell Memorial Travel Fund Awards.