ProfessorJoseph Boyle
Professor of Chemical Systems Pathology
National Heart & Lung Institute - Faculty of Medicine
Orcid identifier0000-0002-4337-3320 (opens in a new tab)
- Professor of Chemical Systems PathologyNational Heart & Lung Institute - Faculty of Medicine
- 020 7594 2723 (Work)
- L536, ICTEM building, Hammersmith Campus, United Kingdom
RESEARCH
How to better prevent heart attacks and strokes ?
Specifically, how can we re-train macrophage inflammatory cells to destroy less and repair more ? We have identified endogenous protective pathways of macrophage differentiation that if pharmacologically triggered may be therapeutic with fewer side effects than simple immunosuppression.
There are 2 main questions:
1 - Regulation of 2 protective pathways namely Heme Oxygenase 1 and macrophage-mediated resolution of tissue hematomas and cyclic-AMP in macrophage-mediated resolution of post-inflammatory debris
2 - Detecting Heme Oxygenase and measuring and locating hemolysis and tissue hemorrhage
We have the global patent for this class of probe and are actively seeking clinical and industrial partners interested in using these to measure HO-1 in disease, for collaboration, licensing and commercialisation. Please get in touch if you are interested in using these probes.
These are our central questions, because:
- In atherosclerotic lesions plaque macrophages damage the vessel wall leading to stroke and heart attack. We and others showed this in the 1990s
- But in spleen, very dense populations of resident macrophages are highly beneficial due to specialisation for recycling iron from damaged red blood cells (splenic red pulp macrophages, RPM)
- We identified a protective macrophage population in plaques with many similarities to RPM. These were completely distinct to the so-called M1 or M2 macrophages and we called Mhem.
So - how do we re-educate fierce but messy fighters to become architects of restitution and repair ? How does Nature already do it ? Our work is in 4 main projects:
- These are links to the papers and preprints and patent and licensing material:
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.0c12864
- https://imperial.tech/our-technologies/a-real-time-fluorescence-probe-for-heme-oxygenase-activity/
- https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3485680/v1
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.01.538808v1
Students, postdoc, fellows or anyone else including commercial partners are most welcome.
Please contact with informal enquiries at:
joseph.boyle@imperial.ac.uk
Specifically, how can we re-train macrophage inflammatory cells to destroy less and repair more ? We have identified endogenous protective pathways of macrophage differentiation that if pharmacologically triggered may be therapeutic with fewer side effects than simple immunosuppression.
There are 2 main questions:
1 - Regulation of 2 protective pathways namely Heme Oxygenase 1 and macrophage-mediated resolution of tissue hematomas and cyclic-AMP in macrophage-mediated resolution of post-inflammatory debris
2 - Detecting Heme Oxygenase and measuring and locating hemolysis and tissue hemorrhage
We have the global patent for this class of probe and are actively seeking clinical and industrial partners interested in using these to measure HO-1 in disease, for collaboration, licensing and commercialisation. Please get in touch if you are interested in using these probes.
These are our central questions, because:
- In atherosclerotic lesions plaque macrophages damage the vessel wall leading to stroke and heart attack. We and others showed this in the 1990s
- But in spleen, very dense populations of resident macrophages are highly beneficial due to specialisation for recycling iron from damaged red blood cells (splenic red pulp macrophages, RPM)
- We identified a protective macrophage population in plaques with many similarities to RPM. These were completely distinct to the so-called M1 or M2 macrophages and we called Mhem.
So - how do we re-educate fierce but messy fighters to become architects of restitution and repair ? How does Nature already do it ? Our work is in 4 main projects:
- These are links to the papers and preprints and patent and licensing material:
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.0c12864
- https://imperial.tech/our-technologies/a-real-time-fluorescence-probe-for-heme-oxygenase-activity/
- https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3485680/v1
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.01.538808v1
Students, postdoc, fellows or anyone else including commercial partners are most welcome.
Please contact with informal enquiries at:
joseph.boyle@imperial.ac.uk
GRANTS
- PROGRAMME GRANTBHF Research Excellence Award (4)British Heart Foundation