Use of NHS-BT blood cones
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Use of NHS-BT blood cones for immunology studies: ERGO submission number: 51685
IRAS ID
253554
Contact name
Salim Khakoo
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
1R01AI143740 - 01 , NIH R10 application
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
We are studying the immune system in individuals with liver disease and liver cancer. Our research has concentrated on cells called natural killer (NK) cells. These cells are especially important in fighting viral infections and cancer. However, in order to understanding how NK cells may be involved in liver disease it is important to compare them with NK cells from healthy individuals. Additionally, we wish to use our understanding of NK cells to develop new therapies for liver disease based upon NK cells. Therefore, our research is to study the basic biology of NK cells and to understand how best to stimulate them in order to use them as a cancer therapy.
The project will be to use lymphocytes derived from volunteeer blood donations to use for this research. These donations are collected by NHS Blood and Transfusion (NHS-BT) and are available on a fee-for-service basis.
Lymphocytes will be cultured in vitro with different stimulants, such as cytokines, and also different cell lines. We will also test them for activity against liver cancer cell lines, using in vitro assays. they will not be used for genetic testing or animal research.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0262
Date of REC Opinion
23 Aug 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion