Imperial Clinical Respiratory Research Unit

Dr Trevor Hansel, Group Leader

 

The Imperial Clinical Respiratory Research Unit (ICRRU) has been jointly established by Imperial NHS Healthcare Trust and the Centre for Respiratory Infection (CRI) at St Mary’s Hospital.

The Imperial NHS Healthcare Trust was formed in 2007 by the merger of Hammersmith Hospital NHS Trust and St. Mary’s NHS Trust. The new Trust and Imperial College London together formed a partnership that became the UK’s first Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) in March 2009.

Imperial College’s Centre for Respiratory Infection (CRI) was established in June 2008, funded by a strategic award from the Wellcome Trust. The CRI has a fully equipped and refurbished core flow cytometry facility with expertise on common colds (RSV and rhinovirus), tuberculosis (TB) and influenza. They have a specialist unit able to perform studies on preclinical in vivo models of disease on site. The CRI is also involved in the MRC and Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma.

The ICRRU was opened by Prof Dame Sally Davies on 8th Oct 2009. It has close links with the Hammersmith, Charing Cross and Royal Brompton Hospitals as well as with phase I clinical trial facilities. Advanced imaging methodologies are available on the Hammersmith site, which is also host to the Clinical Trials Unit supported by the Wellcome Trust.

The ICRRU has close alliances with primary (General Practice) and secondary (Hospital-based) healthcare. It is involved in the training of Academic Clinical Fellows and Clinical Lecturers in association with the NIHR.

The Management Board meets on a monthly basis and has full Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) representation from Imperial College Healthcare Trust, the Centre for Respiratory Infection (CRI) and staff of ICRRU.

Facilities and Techniques

The ICRRU is a dedicated unit with a patient reception area, six clinical and procedure rooms, a processing laboratory with access to specialized laboratories at St Mary’s, a seminar room and offices.

Our main focus is on biomarkers for the measurement and profiling of inflammation, infection and repair. We do this by systematic study of blood and respiratory samples to characterize processes with integrated genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic techniques.

In particular the unit has experience in inhaled and nasal allergen challenge, rhinovirus (RV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) challenge.

The unit has specialised facilities to undergo live viral challenge, through specialised clinical facilities, including ventilated body boxes.

Accurate diagnosis and refined phenotyping will be used to study patients with respiratory disease and to identify subgroups that respond or resist treatment. In addition to studying inflammation, we will focus on remodeling, fibrosis and repair.

The ICRRU has been established to study new therapies for respiratory diseases. It can undertake drug studies in clinical phases I to IV.

Selected publications

Chawes BLK, Edwards MJ, Shamji B, Walker C, Nicholson GC, Tan AJ, Folsgaard, Bonnelykke K, Bisgaard H, Hansel TT. Letter to Editor: A novel method for assessing unchallenged levels of mediators in nasal epithelial lining fluid. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010; 125:1387-89.

Nicholson GC, Tennant RC, Carpenter DC, Sarau HM, Kon OM, Barnes PJ, Salmon M, Vessey RS, Tal Singer RT, Hansel TT. A novel flow cytometric assay of human whole blood neutrophil and monocyte CD11b levels: upregulation by chemokines is related to receptor expression, comparison with neutrophil shape change, and effects of a chemokine receptor (CXCR2) antagonist. Pulm Pharm Ther. 2007;20:52-59.

Hansel TT, Barnes PJ. New drugs for exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Lancet 2009; 374:744-55.

Hansel TT, Kropshofer H, Singer T, Mitchell JA, George AJT. The safety and side effects of monoclonal antibodies. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2010; 9:325-38