Professor Andrew Dick
Professor of Ophthalmology
Faculty Research Director for Medicine and Dentistry
Ophthalmology,
Bristol Eye Hospital, Lower Maudlin Street
Bristol, BS1 2LX
phone: +44 (0)117 342 4854
email: a.dick@bristol.ac.uk
group: Inflammatory eye disease group
Main research area
- Immune mechanisms of autoimmune disorders of the eye
Research overview
The ophthalmic-immunology group's work focuses on how the retina responds to injury, inflammation and degeneration. This covers areas which include:
- The control of immune responses in the retina which includes the interaction with microglia and inhibitory signals mediated by neuronal CD200 expression and matrix (TSP)
- The myeloid cell control of angiogenesis during wound healing and chronic inflammation
- Autoimmune responses within the eye and brain, by studying both T cell and macrophage responses within the tissue during experimental retinal and CNS autoimmunity
- Microglial and macrophage behaviour during retinal degeneration by studying experimental models of photoreceptor degeneration
- Retinal remodelling by studying the interaction of microglia, Muller cells and retinal progenitor cells
- Development of immunomodulatory agents for the treatment of uveitis, investigated in the experimental model of uveitis
Clinically, we are able to translate our bench findings into phase I/II studies as we run a regional SW clinic for the treatment of ocular inflammatory conditions. More recently we have completed a phase I/II study of inhibiting TNF activity in uveitis.
Present collaborators
- Professor R Ali, Institute of Ophthalmology and Institute of Child Health, UCL
- Professor John Forrester, University of Aberdeen
- Professor Neil Williams, School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Bristol
- Professor David Wraith, School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Bristol
- Professor John Isaacs, University of Newcastle
- Professor David Bates, School of Physiology and Pharmacology
- Professor Jim Bainbridge, Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL
Selected publications
- Raveney, B.J.E., Copland, D.A., Calder, C.J., Dick, A.D. and Nicholson, L.B. (2010) TNFR1 signalling is a critical checkpoint for developing macrophages that control T-cell proliferation. Immunology, 131, 340-349.
- Khera, T.K., Dick, A.D. and Nicholson, L.B. (2010) Fragile X-related protein FXR1 controls post-transcriptional suppression of lipopolysaccharide-induced tumour necrosis factor-alpha production by transforming growth factor-beta1. FEBS J., 277, 2754-2765.
- Khera, TK, Dick, A.D. and Nicholson, L.B. (2010) Mechanisms of TNFα regulation in uveitis: Focus on RNA-binding proteins. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, 29(6), 610-621.
- Wu, W., Llewellyn, O.P., Bates, D.O., Nicholson, L.B. and Dick, A.D. (2010) IL-10 regulation of macrophage VEGF production is dependent on macrophage polarisation and hypoxia. Immunobiology, 215, 796-803.
- Regan, E.M., Uney, J.B., Dick, A.D., Zhang, Y., Nunez-Yanez, J.L., McGeehan, J.P., Claeyssens, F. and Kelly, S. (2010) Differential patterning of neuronal, glial and neural progenitor cells on phosphorus-doped and UV irradiated diamond-like carbon. Biomaterials, 31 (2), 207-215.
- Copland, D.A., Hussain, K., Baalasubramanian, S., Hughes, T.R., Morgan, B.P., Xu, H., Dick, A.D. and Nicholson, L.B. (2010) Systemic and local anti-C5 therapy reduces the disease severity in experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis. Clin. Exp. Immunol, 159, 303-314.
- Carter, D.A., Dick, A.D. and Mayer, E.J. (2009) CD133+ adult human retinal cells remain undifferentiated in leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). BMC Ophthalmol. 9, 1.
- Lee, R.W.J., Schewitz, L., Nicholson, L.B., Dayan, C.M. and Dick, A.D. (2009) Steroid refractory CD4+ T cells in patients with sight-threatening uveitis. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 50, 4273-4278.
- Schewitz, L., Lee, R.W.J., Dayan, C.M. and Dick, A.D. (2009) Glucocorticoids and the emerging importance of T cell subsets in steroid refractory diseases. Immunopharmacol Immunotoxicol, 31(1), 1-22.
- Raveney, B.J.E., Copland, D.A., Dick, A.D. and Nicholson, L.B. (2009) TNFR1-dependent regulation of myeloid cell function in Experimental Autoimmune Uveoretinitis. J. Immunol, 183, 2321-2329.