Section of Immunology at Chelsea and Westminster

The Section of Immunology on the Chelsea and Westminster campus is an active research department with interests in primary immunodeficiency (Peter Kelleher), and in secondary immunodeficiency caused by HIV (Frances Gotch, Nesrina Imami, Martin Goodier and Steven Patterson).

We are investigating immunomodulatory therapies which have the potential to reverse such immunodeficiencies.  We work extremely closely with the NHS departments of Clinical Immunology and HIV/GUM on this site, and are involved in drugs trials and therapeutic vaccine trials, as well as basic research to enable us to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms which underlie immunodeficiency.  We have spacious state of the art laboratories well equipped with modern technology.

In addition we run an Human Immunology laboratory (HIL) for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) on this site (Jill Gilmour, Peter Hayes and Tony Tarragona-Fiol).  The remit of this laboratory is to enable meaningful comparisons of immunolological responses which are induced in volunteers who receive diverse prototype prophylactic HIV vaccines which are being tested at field sites world-wide.

We have also refurbished laboratory space in Entebbe, Uganda where we are working with the Uganda Virus Research Institute, the MRC Programme on AIDS in Uganda and IAVI, examining immunological correlates with HIV infection and progression to disease in a country where HIV prevalence is high.