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Click here to search FindAPhD.com for PhD studentship opportunities(MRC DTP) Exploring the influence of treatment on CD4+ T-cell sub-populations in patients receiving biologic drugs for their inflammatory arthritis
Prof A Barton, Dr D Plant, Dr S Viatte
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Background: Tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) therapy is ineffective for approximately 20% of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and there is currently no way to predict which patients will not benefit. To address this precision medicine question, reliable biomarkers of TNFi response are needed. The role of CD4+ T-cells in the pathogenesis of RA is well established and high dimensional single cell technologies such as mass cytometry (i.e. CyTOF) have revealed a broad diversity of CD4+ T-cells that are expanded in RA and contract with successful treatment (1). However, the precise T-cell subsets and key effector functions driving and perpetuating RA remains to be completely resolved and very few studies have specifically investigated their role in treatment response to TNFi.
PBMCs and serum samples will be made available from 40 RA patients commencing treatment with TNFi. Samples are collected at pre-treatment and 1-hour, followed by trough sampling at 2-weeks, 4-weeks and 6-weeks, with follow-up collection at 3-months. Disease activity recorded using the DAS28 scoring system will also be available. The successful candidate will oversee the generation of drug level data in serum collected at each follow-up visit. Immunophenotyping of CD4+ T-cell will be performed using a CyTOF antibody panel that is already established in our laboratory (2). Laboratory data will be generated during the first year of the studentship by the laboratory team in the Centre for Musculoskeletal Research and the Flow Cytometry Core Facility within University of Manchester. The candidate has the option of being involved in the laboratory work if there is a desire to acquire some laboratory experience. This is an ongoing collection therefore additional samples will be made available for validation experiments later in the project timeline.
This studentship will apply state-of-the-art statistical techniques to characterise T-cell subset abundance, intracellular signal transduction and to identify the most important cell-types associated with trough serum drug levels and improvement in disease activity during early treatment with TNFi.
Identifying biomarkers of treatment response to TNFi in RA will enhance patient stratification and targeted therapy, better characterise the role of pathogenic T-cell subsets in determining important clinical outcomes and characterise molecular signatures that are resistant to treatment or correlated with good treatment response.
http://www.braggss.co.uk/
http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/Musculoskeletal/
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/anne.barton.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/darren.plant.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/john.grainger-2.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/sebastien.viatte.html
Entry Requirements
Applications are invited from UK/EU nationals only. Applicants must have obtained, or be about to obtain, at least an upper second class honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject.
PBMCs and serum samples will be made available from 40 RA patients commencing treatment with TNFi. Samples are collected at pre-treatment and 1-hour, followed by trough sampling at 2-weeks, 4-weeks and 6-weeks, with follow-up collection at 3-months. Disease activity recorded using the DAS28 scoring system will also be available. The successful candidate will oversee the generation of drug level data in serum collected at each follow-up visit. Immunophenotyping of CD4+ T-cell will be performed using a CyTOF antibody panel that is already established in our laboratory (2). Laboratory data will be generated during the first year of the studentship by the laboratory team in the Centre for Musculoskeletal Research and the Flow Cytometry Core Facility within University of Manchester. The candidate has the option of being involved in the laboratory work if there is a desire to acquire some laboratory experience. This is an ongoing collection therefore additional samples will be made available for validation experiments later in the project timeline.
This studentship will apply state-of-the-art statistical techniques to characterise T-cell subset abundance, intracellular signal transduction and to identify the most important cell-types associated with trough serum drug levels and improvement in disease activity during early treatment with TNFi.
Identifying biomarkers of treatment response to TNFi in RA will enhance patient stratification and targeted therapy, better characterise the role of pathogenic T-cell subsets in determining important clinical outcomes and characterise molecular signatures that are resistant to treatment or correlated with good treatment response.
http://www.braggss.co.uk/
http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/Musculoskeletal/
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/anne.barton.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/darren.plant.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/john.grainger-2.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/sebastien.viatte.html
Entry Requirements
Applications are invited from UK/EU nationals only. Applicants must have obtained, or be about to obtain, at least an upper second class honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject.
Funding Notes
This project is to be funded under the MRC Doctoral Training Partnership. If you are interested in this project, please make direct contact with the Principal Supervisor to arrange to discuss the project further as soon as possible. You MUST also submit an online application form - full details on how to apply can be found on the MRC DTP website www.manchester.ac.uk/mrcdtpstudentships
As an equal opportunities institution we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.
As an equal opportunities institution we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.
References
(1) Nitya Nair, Henrik E Mei, Shih-Yu Chen, Matthew Hale, Garry P Nolan, Holden T Maecker, et al. Mass cytometry as a platform for the discovery of cellular biomarkers to guide effective rheumatic disease therapy. Arthritis Res Ther. 2015; 17(1): 127.
(2) Rao DA, Gurish MF, Marshall JL, Slowikowski K, Fonseka CY, Liu Y, et al. Pathologically expanded peripheral T helper cell subset drives B cells in rheumatoid arthritis. Nature. 2017 Feb 1;542(7639):110–4.
(2) Rao DA, Gurish MF, Marshall JL, Slowikowski K, Fonseka CY, Liu Y, et al. Pathologically expanded peripheral T helper cell subset drives B cells in rheumatoid arthritis. Nature. 2017 Feb 1;542(7639):110–4.
