Professor Laura Coates, a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at NDORMS, has received one of seven professorships awarded this year by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The NIHR Research Professorship programme funds future leaders to promote the effective translation of research into clinical benefit. Those nominated must have an outstanding research record of clinical and applied health and care research and have demonstrated effective translation of research for improved health and care. Each recipient will get a five-year award of up to £2 million. This includes three support posts, research costs and access to a leadership and development programme.
Professor Coates, an Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist at Oxford University Hospitals who is supported by the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), will use the funding to further her research into psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, a type of inflammatory arthritis that develops in around one-third of people with the skin condition psoriasis, causing swollen and painful joints. Around 640,000 people in the UK have this form of arthritis.
She said: ‘I’m delighted that the NIHR has awarded me this funding in recognition of my research in this area. Currently, we cannot predict which of the 2.1 million people with psoriasis will go on to develop arthritis, nor are we able to prevent it from happening. When people do develop arthritis, despite new arthritis medicines becoming available in the last two decades, there are few studies telling us how to choose and combine these drugs in practice.’
She said that in her professorship, she will use data from a large European study to develop a simple risk calculator to allow people with psoriasis to estimate their risk of developing arthritis.
‘This will help people living with psoriasis understand their risk but also help us to design future studies aiming to prevent the development of arthritis in people who are at high risk.
‘I will also design a new national study to test personalisation of treatment for those who do develop arthritis. I will work with people living with psoriatic arthritis and medical teams to design this study using digital supports like apps and we will be able to test different treatments and personalise these for different people.’
Professor Jonathan Rees, Head of Department at NDORMS said: ‘My heartfelt congratulations to Laura on being awarded such a high accolade in recognition of her ambitious research programme. I am delighted for both Laura and for NDORMS that she has become the first rheumatologist to receive an NIHR Research Professorship. Laura is blazing a trail that will raise the profile and our understanding of psoriatic arthritis. I am confident her research will have a direct and impactful benefit to patients in the UK and globally.’
Read more about the latest Research Professorship awardees and their research.