InflaMab: A novel antibody therapy for Cardiovascular related disease at Ulster University

Dr V McGilligan, Prof Alex Miras, Dr S Watterson, Dr Breedge Conwell Monday, February 06, 2023 Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

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Londonderry United Kingdom Bioinformatics Cardiology Immunology Molecular Biology Systematic Biology

About the Project

The NLRP3 inflammasome is a protein complex involved in many chronic inflammatory conditions including coronary artery disease (CAD), obesity and type 2 diabetes. Since the NLRP3 protein is found inside cells, we have developed a novel antibody technology which allows cell entrance to specifically inhibit this inflammasome. Preliminary data indicate that this antibody, InflaMab, inhibits CAD development by 30%.

We here aim to determine the efficacy of InflaMab in preventing CAD in laboratory models of disease. We also aim to assess its impact on cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes and explore the role of the inflammasome in obesity. Our ultimate goal is to progress the development of InflaMab towards human clinical trial stage.

The project also aims to identify which CAD patients would be best suited for treatment with InflaMab and will investigate clinical biomarkers that may indicate the efficacy of the antibody. The project will involve a retrospective analysis of 2000 patients who have undergone angiography and have been followed up over a period of at least 4 years. This will allow measurement of the NLRP3 inflammasome and associated blood biomarkers within the dataset, to be correlated with imaging and other clinical data available. This project will take place at the Personalised Medicine Centre at the School of Medicine, Ulster University.

The project provides the opportunity for a PhD student to gain experience and training in a diverse set of multidisciplinary skills including clinical research, practical laboratory skills and bioinformatics. The project will be supervised by an experienced project team of academics, clinicians and bioinformaticians. The project is supported by and includes collaborators from several prestigious institutions including Harvard Medical School, Boston, Aarhuas University, Denmark and Leiden University, The Netherlands. There may be opportunity for the successful candidate to travel and gain research experience in these other labs.