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Welcome to the homepage of Dr David Grainger's laboratory, based in the Department of Medicine, Cambridge University, UK
We study mechanisms in chronic inflammatory diseases, with particular focus on coronary heart disease, using a borad array of cell biology and biochemistry techniques.
Prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease is improving all the time. New drugs, such as the lipid lowering statins, are reducing rates of heart attack at an impressive rate. Unfortunately, it is difficult to identify the individuals who are most at risk, and therefore target the most aggressive treatments to these individuals.
A major strand of our research, therefore, is aimed at developing better diagnostic tests able to identify those individuals who will go on to have a heart attack. Our laboratory has pioneered the use of cutting-edge metabolomic and immunomic techniques in this area, with promising results. But diagnosing the disease is only part of the story: even with current best therapy many thousands of individuals will still have a heart attack each year.
New therapeutic options are clearly still required, and the second major strand of our work is to better understand inflammatory mechanisms in heart disease so that we can design new medications. Over the past decade, this has yielded a number of promising approaches, including TGF-beta elevating agents, broad-spectrum chemokine inhibitors and most recently apoE mimetic drugs. With the continued support of the British Heart Foundation, we will endeavour to bring these advances out of the laboratory and into the clinic.
COMPETITION
FOR SUMMER STUDENTSHIPS 2008 NOW OPEN
The competition for the Eighth Annual Poniard / Cambridge University Biomedical Summer Studentships for 2008 is now open. The closing date for applications is 15th February 2008
MAJOR
EXPANSION OF BSCI RESEARCH
Our research into the mechanism of action of Brioad-spectrum chemokine inhibitors (BSCIs) has received a major boost, with the announcement that local biotechnology company Funxional Therapeutics Ltd are to expand their collaboration with Cambridge University.
ANNA
KAUPI AWARDED FELLOWSHIP TO JOIN LAB
Anna Kaupi, from the University of Umea, Sweden, has been awarded a Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to join the lab from 5th February 2008. Anna will join the cadUK project, using multivariate modelling to evaluate different diagnostic paradigms from coronary heart disease.
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