Respiratory Medicine Unit

Interview: Immune responses in lung disease - Sarcoidosis

We are interested in how immunological responses impact on mechanisms of lung injury and repair. The projects are divided into mechanistic and translational studies. The mechanistic studies question how innate immune cells like iNKT cells, MDSCs and monocyte-macrophage lineage impact on outcome in severe influenza virus infection and progression of lung fibrosis. These studies inform, drive and allow us to test mechanistic hypotheses in/from our human work.

In the translational space, our focus is on new or improved therapy for lung fibrosis. Our diseases of interest are idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and fibrotic sarcoidosis, and we target the interface between cellular immunology, disease mechanisms and early clinical trials.

Current projects in the group

• Role of epithelial CD1d in local lung immune homeostasis and responses
• Impact of monocyte subtypes, monocyte-derived macrophages and MDSCs on immune response to pathogens
• Development of human lung organoid models for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• Contribution of monocyte-macrophage subtypes to acceleration and acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis 
• Examination of M-CSF/CSF-1R pathway as a potential therapy for IPF

Note: for Clinical Respiratory Specialist inquiries, Prof Ho's address is

Interstitial Lung Disease Service

Oxford Center for Respiratory Medicine

Churchill Hospital, Oxford OX3 7LJ