Graham Wright
Graham Wright

Dr Graham Wright PhD

Associate Professor

 0131 455 3395

  G.Wright2@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

Dr Graham Wright is Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the School of Applied Sciences. He is also an Associate Professor in Immunology and active researcher in the Centre for Biomedicine and Global Health.

Graham has a BSc (hons) in Immunology from the University of Glasgow. In 2005 he was awarded an MRC Studentship to study for his PhD in the lab of Prof. Hans Stauss at University College London. He was awarded his PhD in 2009 with a thesis that described a novel cell therapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Following on from his PhD he received an Arthritis Research UK (now Versus Arthritis) Fellowship to develop cellular and gene-therapies for rheumatoid arthritis.

In 2015 Graham moved to Edinburgh Napier University as a Lecturer in Immunology, from here he has continued his work on cellular therapies for rheumatoid arthritis with funding from the Chief Scientist Office (Scotland) and expanded this work to focus on multiple sclerosis with Wellcome Trust funding (collaboration with Prof Hans Stauss, UCL). Whilst Graham’s primary research focus is the field of autoimmunity, his interests lie in understanding how we can manipulate the immune system to benefit human health, with a strong focus on gene-therapies and cellular-therapies of disease. This includes examining: clinical immune modulation in a liver transplant setting (collaboration with Mr Francis Robertson, NHS); cellular immune therapies to enhance vascular healing (collaboration with Dr Mark Ross, Edinburgh Napier University); and understanding how immune cells control bone turnover and disease (collaboration with Dr Katherine Staines, University of Brighton).

Graham has an interest in learning and teaching, with an emphasis on experience based learning. He was the founding chair of the Early Career Lecturers in Bioscience Forum (eclBio) an advisory group to the Heads of University BioScience and part of the Royal Society of Biology.

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Heads of University Biosciennces Executive Committe - Early Career Representative (non-voting/advisory role)

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Organising Committee - RSB/HUBS Developing your own research programme Workshop
  • Chair, Organising Committee - RSB/HUBS New to teaching bioscience in Higher Education
  • Organising Committee - RSB/HUBS New to teaching bioscience in Higher Education
  • Invited Chair - Head of University Biosciences Spring Meeting - Discussion Session - Identifying and meeting the needs of early career lecturers

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Nomination - Scottish Knowledge Exchange Award in 2019 - Innovation of the Year, for: Ranking novel immune-modulating therapeutics for progression to clinical development
  • Best Presentation (overall), Arthritis Research UK Fellows Conference

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Grant Reviewer - Medical Research Council

 

Invited Speaker

  • Invited Speaker - RSB/HUBS Developing your own research programme Workshop - Open Educational Resources to support bioscience lecturers
  • Invited Speaker - Heads of University Biosciences Spring Congress - professional and social barriers to success as an early career academic
  • Invited Speaker - RSB/HUBS New to teaching bioscience in HE - Increasing student ownership and engagement in lab practical work by removing the ‘safety net’
  • Invited Speaker - Arthritis Research UK Fellows Conference - Developing adoptive regulatory T cell therapy of rheuamtoid arthritis
  • Invited Speaker - British Society of Gene Therapy Congress - Treating Immunopathology with Antigen-Specific Regulatory T Cells Generated by T Cell Receptor Gene Transfer
  • Invited Speaker - UCL Partners Conference– Adoptive regulatory T cell therapy as a treatement for immunopathology

 

Media Activity

  • March/April 2020 edition - The Biologist - Article: Surviving your first weeks as a lecturer
  • May 2016 - The Converstion - Article: Mystery in northern Scotland that is baffling multiple sclerosis experts
  • June 2016 - IFL Science - Mystery In Northern Scotland That Is Baffling Multiple Sclerosis Experts
  • January 2010 - Nature Reviews Drug Discovery - Research Highlights: Targeted T-Regs tame autoimmune disease
  • January 2010 - Nature Reviews Rheuamatology - Research Highlights: Treg cell therapy
  • December 2009 - Nature Reviews Immunology - Research Highlights: Adoptive therapy with redirected primary regulatory T cells results in antigen-specific suppression of arthritis
  • December 2009 - Proceeding of the National Academy of Science of America - Commentray by Prof. JA Bluestone: Regulatory T cells directed to the site ofthe action
  • 7 November 2009 - New Scientist (2733): work featured - Injected cells stop body from attacking self

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Elected Member of the Royal Society of Biology
  • Member British Society of Immunology

 

Reviewing

  • Gene Therapy – Nature Publishing Group
  • Arthritis and Rheumatism – Wiley
  • International Journal of Clinical Rheumatology – Future Medicine
  • Biologics: Targets and Therapy – Dove Medical Press
  • OncoTargets and Therapy – Dove Medical Press
  • Rheumatology: Research and Reviews – Dove Medical Press

 

Filter by

Date


20 results

Inflammatory Monocytes Are Rapidly Recruited to the Post-Ischaemic Liver in Patients Undergoing Liver Transplantation and Cytokines Associated with Their Activation Correlate with Graft Outcomes

Journal Article
Robertson, F. P., Cuff, A. O., Male, V., Wright, G. P., Pallett, L. J., Fuller, B. J., & Davidson, B. R. (2025)
Inflammatory Monocytes Are Rapidly Recruited to the Post-Ischaemic Liver in Patients Undergoing Liver Transplantation and Cytokines Associated with Their Activation Correlate with Graft Outcomes. Current Issues in Molecular Biology, 47(1), Article 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/cimb47010049
Liver ischaemia–reperfusion (IR) injury remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality following liver transplantation and resection. CD4+ T cells have been shown to play a ...

The type III intermediate filament vimentin regulates organelle distribution and modulates autophagy

Journal Article
Biskou, O., Casanova, V., Hooper, K., Kemp, S., Wright, G. P., Satsangi, J., …Stevens, C. (2019)
The type III intermediate filament vimentin regulates organelle distribution and modulates autophagy. PLOS ONE, 14(1), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209665
The cytoskeletal protein vimentin plays a key role in positioning of organelles within the cytosol and has been linked to the regulation of numerous cellular processes includi...

Belonging to a learning community: staff perspectives.

Presentation / Conference
Ennis, L., Tierney, A., Lucas, L., Logan, P., & Wright, G. (2018, October)
Belonging to a learning community: staff perspectives. Presented at Evidence for Enhancement: The Challenge of Community and Belonging
The Faculty Learning Community (FLC) at Edinburgh Napier University is based on the Miami model developed by Milton D. Cox and seeks to explore the ways in which staff support...

MS TCR Therapy

Patent
Wright, G., Stauss, H., & McGovern, J. MS TCR Therapy. United Kingdon

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Wright, G., Stauss, H., & McGovern, J. MS TCR Therapy. United Kingdon

Lower Resting and Exercise-Induced Circulating Angiogenic Progenitors and Angiogenic T-Cells in Older Men

Journal Article
Ross, M. D., Malone, E. M., Simpson, R., Cranston, I., Ingram, L., Wright, G. P., …Florida-James, G. D. (2018)
Lower Resting and Exercise-Induced Circulating Angiogenic Progenitors and Angiogenic T-Cells in Older Men. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology, 314(3), 392-402. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00592.2017
Ageing is associated with a dysfunctional endothelial phenotype, as well as reduced angiogenic capabilities. Exercise exerts beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system, p...

Engineering Specificity and Function of Therapeutic Regulatory T Cells

Journal Article
McGovern, J. L., Wright, G. P., & Stauss, H. J. (2017)
Engineering Specificity and Function of Therapeutic Regulatory T Cells. Frontiers in Immunology, 8, https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2017.01517
Adoptive therapy with polyclonal regulatory T cells (Tregs) has shown efficacy in suppressing detrimental immune responses in experimental models of autoimmunity and transplan...

Remote ischaemic preconditioning in orthotopic liver transplantation (RIPCOLT trial): a pilot randomized controlled feasibility study

Journal Article
Robertson, F. P., Goswami, R., Wright, G. P., Imber, C., Sharma, D., Malago, M., …Davidson, B. R. (2017)
Remote ischaemic preconditioning in orthotopic liver transplantation (RIPCOLT trial): a pilot randomized controlled feasibility study. HPB, 19(9), 757-767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hpb.2017.05.005
Background Ischaemia Reperfusion (IR) injury is a major cause of morbidity, mortality and graft loss following Orthotopic Liver Transplantation (OLT). Utilising marginal graft...

Recruitment of inflammatory monocytes after liver transplantation and correlation with clinical outcome

Presentation / Conference
Robertson, F., Male, V., Wright, G., Fuller, B., & Davidson, B. (2017, February)
Recruitment of inflammatory monocytes after liver transplantation and correlation with clinical outcome
Background Ischaemia reperfusion injury is a key cause of mortality and graft loss after liver transplantation. After tissue injury, monocytes are rapidly mobilised and recrui...

A systematic review and meta-analysis of donor ischaemic preconditioning in liver transplantation

Journal Article
Robertson, F. P., Magill, L. J., Wright, G. P., Fuller, B., & Davidson, B. R. (2016)
A systematic review and meta-analysis of donor ischaemic preconditioning in liver transplantation. Transplant International, 29(11), 1147-1154. https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.12849
Ischaemic preconditioning (IPC) is a strategy to reduce ischaemia–reperfusion (IR) injury. Its benefit in human liver transplantation is unclear. The aim of this study was to ...

Protocol for a prospective randomized controlled trial of recipient remote ischaemic preconditioning in orthotopic liver transplantation (RIPCOLT trial)

Journal Article
Robertson, F. P., Goswami, R., Wright, G. P., Fuller, B., & Davidson, B. R. (2016)
Protocol for a prospective randomized controlled trial of recipient remote ischaemic preconditioning in orthotopic liver transplantation (RIPCOLT trial). Transplantation Research, 5(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13737-016-0033-4
Ischaemic reperfusion (IR) injury is a major cause of graft loss, morbidity and mortality following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Demand for liver transplantation ha...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Engineered Treg Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis - Wellcome Trust – Pathfinder Award (Co-PI) Award £218,206, 2015 (University College London)
  • Generating ‘designer’ Tregs for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis – Arthritis Research UK – Fellowship (PI) £232,000 (University College London)
  • Generating Ag-specific regulatory T cells for the treatment of autoimmune disease – MRC – Bench to Bedside PhD Studentship (Award holder/PhD student) £81000 (University College London)

Current Post Grad projects

Previous Post Grad projects

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • PhD Supervision - Mr Francis Robertson - The effect of remote ischaemic preconditioning on CD4+ T cells following hepatic ischaemia reperfusion injury. University College London