The abstract, 'A multimodal dissection of spatial tissue niches associated with severity in childhood arthritis’, explores how inflammation changes the joint lining in children with arthritis.
Around 15,000 children in the UK suffer from the condition, but the cause of the disease is not well understood. Researching diseases that affect children can be difficult and this study required collaboration between multiple universities and hospitals, led by Professors Lucy Wedderburn and Adam Croft (UCL and University of Birmingham). In a world-first, the team of researchers successfully collected tiny tissue fragments from children’s joints, which could be analysed to learn about how to treat arthritis better. The full study will be published in Science Translational Medicine in July.
On receiving the award, Chrissy said “I was so delighted to be given this award- it’s been a huge team effort from many researchers, families and healthcare teams to get to this point and I’m very grateful to my supervisors for all their support. When we first started, it wasn’t known if this kind of research was possible in children, so it’s amazing to see how far the work has come.”
Chrissy joined NDORMS in 2022 after being awarded an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship, and is currently in her second year of her DPhil. Her work investigates why inflammation persists and extends across joints, despite immunosuppressive treatment.