Nima Gharahdaghi

I completed my Ph.D. studies on the molecular regulation of ageing and sarcopenia at Medical School, the University of Nottingham (UoN). Then, I worked on the regulators of lifespan and health span in Caenorhabditis _elegans nematodes; meanwhile, I was collaborating and leading successful projects at the Clinical, Metabolic, and Molecular Physiology laboratory (in-vivo and in-vitro) about interventions to upregulate health span over pre- and rehabilitation in octogenarians with comorbidities (e.g. urological cancer). After finishing my role at UoN, I started an exciting new role (Research Fellow) in the immunology field at Experimental Medicine Division at the University of Oxford.

I am investigating the role of IL-18 (as a risk factor or protective factor) in intestinal inflammation at the Translational Gastroenterology Unit with Prof Holm Uhlig. I aim to gain a mechanistic understanding of IL-18 production and regulation by using different cellular models of monogenic diseases with high levels of IL-18. These findings could identify subgroups of patients with inflammatory bowel disease benefitting from IL-18 targeting therapies. I am also studying the impact of the upregulation of IL-10 and/or its’ pathway defects in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

The therapy of inflammatory bowel disease remains a challenge due to many patients not responding to existing therapies. Further, the mechanisms of progression of this disease and the impacts of autoinflammatory factors are ill-defined. Thus, mapping the mechanisms and the related up-regulated and down-regulated pathways leading to intestinal inflammation will help to identify novel therapeutic targets. I hope that this body of work will contribute to this effort by identifying patient subgroups, which will benefit from more targeted treatments.