Using primary human immune cells to evaluate novel therapeutics.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Research into immune cell function and human diseases in which the immune system plays a role.
IRAS ID
322909
Contact name
Rhiannon Jenkinson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nexus BioQuest
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Nexus BioQuest’s research focuses on testing the ability of novel drugs to modulate immune cell function. Many diseases including autoimmune and inflammatory diseases are caused by inappropriate activation of the immune system whereas others such as cancers do not initiate a strong enough immune response. Although there have been many advances in the treatment of these diseases, there remains a strong unmet clinical need for new directed therapies to target the immune system to treat these types of diseases. The aim of this study is to demonstrate whether newly identified drugs have the potential to be developed to treat diseases in the areas of oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Access to primary immune cells from blood or tonsil tissue is required as the use of cell lines or immune cells from other animal species do not always model the human immune response in an accurate way. Typically cells isolated from blood will be incubated with a therapeutic and the ability of the therapeutic to alter immune cell behaviours assessed. Assays will assess target expression, mode of action (the mechanisms by which a therapeutic works), efficacy (how well the therapeutic works at achieving a desired effect) and establish biomarkers, using primary immune cell subsets isolated from anonymous donors.REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0272
Date of REC Opinion
5 Apr 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion