ProfessorMatthew Pickering

I am an expert on the complement system and its role in health and disease. My clinical expertise includes systemic lupus erythematous and complement deficiency states. I am a Professor of Rheumatology at Imperial College and the Academic Director of the Imperial Lupus Centre.

My research has achieved international recognition for elucidating the relationship between uncontrolled complement activation and renal disease. I have achieved this through a sustained research program that has utilized genetic characterization of families with complement-mediated renal disease, the in vitro studies of complement regulatory proteins and the generation of unique models of complement-mediated kidney disease.

Key research achievements include (1) the demonstration that complement C5 is critical in the development of atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome. This research resulted in the successful therapeutic application of C5 inhibition in this previously untreatable condition; (2) the demonstration that specific activation fragments of the central complement protein (termed C3) are important in complement-mediated renal injury; (3) the characterization of a new kidney disease, termed CFHR5 nephropathy; (4) the identification and characterization of C3 glomerulopathy as a new group of kidney diseases in which the underlying defect is impaired regulation of complement; (5) the implementation of C3 glomerulopathy as a new disease classification within the international renal pathology and nephrology community, the organization of the first international meeting on this group of conditions and the publication of the first international consensus document; (6) the unravelling of the mechanistic basis underlying C3 glomerulopathy including CFHR5 nephropathy.