Prediction of Interstitial Lung Disease in people living with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Supervisors
Aurelie Najm, School of Infection and Immunity, University of Glasgow
Robert Gray, School of Infection and Immunity, University of Glasgow
Carl Goodyear, School of Infection and Immunity, University of Glasgow
Industry Partner - Astra Zeneca
Summary
Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) represent a group of heterogeneous pulmonary fibrotic diseases often associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA-ILD represent a heterogeneous complication and presents with different clinical, histological and radiological patterns, called nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) and usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP). Due to the lack of reliable diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers, and poor prognosis, this represents a substantial clinical challenge.
Our project aims at: (i) identifying monocytes epigenetic signatures and their impact on gene and inflammatory pathways expression according to the pattern of lung disease (UIP & NSIP) in RA-ILD and ILD without joint condition; (ii) understanding these signatures' contribution to myeloid cells function and phenotypes across both circulating and joint and lung tissue compartments; and (iii) confirming identified epigenetic profiles as biomarkers for patient stratification.
During this iCASE doctoral program in collaboration Industry Partner – Astra Zeneca, the candidate will be given the opportunity to work with an non-academic partner during a 3 months placement. With a strong focus on precision medicine, the candidate will be trained in a wide range of techniques, starting with epigenetic profiling of the myeloid compartment in blood with Cut & Tag and ATAC-seq (i); and continuing with more in depth single cell techniques with multiome (single cell RNA seq and ATAC seq) analysis for myeloid compartment clustering and trajectory analysis in bloods and target tissues (ii). The third part of the program will translate these findings into patients stratification tools, using artificial intelligence-derived algorithms (iii)
There will be a 30 minute Q&A Zoom call with Aurelie about their Project on Monday 18th December, at 11.30am (GMT).
If you wish to receive the Zoom Call information please email precisionmedicine-dtp@glasgow.ac.uk
Remembering to put in the Subject line, the name of the Supervisor, this will allow us to send you the correct Zoom call information.