Bath scientist awarded major grant by arthritis charity
A Bath scientist has been awarded a major grant of £119,309 from leading medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign for his work into the crippling condition of rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr David Sansom, an ARC Senior Fellow in the department of pharmacology at the University of Bath, is trying to track down the cause of RA, which affects around 600,000 people in the UK.
RA is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system goes into overdrive and attacks itself, leading to inflammation and swelling and pain in the joints.
"The exact causes of RA are not known, but many people think that cells of the immune system, known as the T cells, attack the joints," explained Dr Sansom. "Normally T cells fight infection, and are correctly turned on and then turned off again when no longer required. How they are turned off is unclear and it is possible these "off switches" are faulty in arthritis.
"Recently a new molecule, called CTLA-4, has been identified, which acts as an "off switch" for T cells, and we wish to know how this switch works and when it is operated. We can then test whether this switch works normally in RA."
The Arthritis Research Campaign is the fifth biggest medical research charity in the UK, and last year raised almost £23m to fund research into arthritis and all forms of rheumatic disease.
