Infection & Inflammation

Mammalian responses to microbial / parasitic infection occur at many levels and include both the immune and metabolic pathways. Understanding those responses to infection in a mammalian host that are common, and those that are specific to a given infectious agent. Responses to inflammation are not restricted to infection, and the immune response profile through the course of disease processes provides a valuable source of complementary information in the context of systems biology.

The linkage of the immune and metabolic responses provides an opportunity to gain a more comprehensive view of the biochemical processes that underlie response to infection and the influence of disease processes on mammalian health.

Researchers in Biomolecular Medicine have recently embarked on a programme of study focused on the interface of the immune system and metabolism using NMR and MS-based metabonomics in parallel with multiplexed cytokine profiling.

Research in Biomolecular Medicine benefits enormously from strong collaborations with both the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. These collaborations are coordinated by Dr Jasmina Saric, a Wellcome Trust Fellow in Biomolecular Medicine.

Key Recent Publications

Saric J, Li JV, Swann JR, Utzinger J, Calvert G, Nicholson JK, Dirnhofer S, Dallman MJ, Bictash M, Holmes E. 2010. Integrated cytokine and metabolic analysis of pathological responses to parasite exposure in rodents. J Proteome Res 9(5):2255-64.

Wang Y, Utzinger J, Saric J, Li JV, Burckhardt J, Dirnhofer S, Nicholson JK, Singer BH, Brun R, Holmes E. 2008. Global metabolic responses of mice to Trypanosoma brucei brucei infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105(16):6127-32.

Bundy JG, Willey TL, Castell RS, Ellar DJ, Brindle KM. 2005. Discrimination of pathogenic clinical isolates and laboratory strains of Bacillus cereus by NMR-based metabolomic profiling. FEMS Microbiol Lett 242(1):127-36.