Barnes Group

Welcome to the Barnes Group

One of the aims of our programme is to develop a prophylactic and therapeutic hepatitis C virus vaccine (HCV). 

HCV is currently a global epidemic infecting 170 million people worldwide and a significant issue in the United Kingdom, where 0.4 % of the population are infected. Many chronically infected patients silently develop complications of liver disease that include hepatocellular cancer, liver cirrhosis and liver failure. Current gold-standard treatments are suboptimal, fraught with side effects and often fail.

An exciting new programme of work to compliment the HCV vaccine programme is an assessment of the epidemiology, serology, pathogenesis and T cell immunity to hepatitis E virus infection in collaboration with Dr. Harry Dalton (Truro, Cornwall). 

Other research interests include IgG4 systemic disease –a cause of severe biliary and pancreatic pathology of unknown aetiology, only very recently described, that is characterised by a lymphocytic infiltrate with IgG4 producing B cells. We have now established a large cohort of patients and are currently performing detailed assessment of T and B cells profiles to further define pathogenesis (E. Culver Wellcome Trust funded).