Graham Wright
Graham Wright

Dr Graham Wright PhD

Associate Professor

 0131 455 3395

  G.Wright2@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

Dr Graham Wright is Head of Research and an Associate Professor in Immunology in the School of Applied Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland, UK.

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

 

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
  • June 2016 - IFL Science - Mystery In Northern Scotland That Is Baffling Multiple Sclerosis Experts
  • May 2016 - The Converstion - Article: 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


19 results

CD3 limits the efficacy of TCR gene therapy in vivo

Journal Article
Ahmadi, M., King, J. W., Xue, S. A., Voisine, C., Holler, A., Wright, G. P., …Stauss, H. J. (2011)
CD3 limits the efficacy of TCR gene therapy in vivo. Blood, 118(13), 3528-3537. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2011-04-346338
The function of T-cell receptor (TCR) gene modified T cells is dependent on efficient surface expression of the introduced TCR / heterodimer. We tested whether endogenous CD3...

Therapeutic potential of Tregs to treat rheumatoid arthritis

Journal Article
Wright, G. P., Stauss, H. J., & Ehrenstein, M. R. (2011)
Therapeutic potential of Tregs to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Seminars in Immunology, 23(3), 195-201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smim.2011.07.004
There is accumulating evidence for regulatory T cell defects in rheumatoid arthritis and that some biologic interventions, in particular anti-TNF, can target this population. ...

Clinical Applications of Autoimmunity to Citrullinated Proteins in Rheumatoid Arthritis, from Improving Diagnostics to Future Therapies

Journal Article
Kinloch, A. J., Ng, K., & Wright, G. P. (2011)
Clinical Applications of Autoimmunity to Citrullinated Proteins in Rheumatoid Arthritis, from Improving Diagnostics to Future Therapies. Recent patents on inflammation & allergy drug discovery, 5(2), 108-127. https://doi.org/10.2174/187221311795399246
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), although widely considered to be the most commonly occurring autoimmune disease, has only truly been substantiated as a distinct autoimmune disease ...

Regulatory T-cell adoptive immunotherapy: potential for treatment of autoimmunity

Journal Article
Wright, G. P., Ehrenstein, M. R., & Stauss, H. J. (2011)
Regulatory T-cell adoptive immunotherapy: potential for treatment of autoimmunity. Expert Review of Clinical Immunology, 7(2), 213-225. https://doi.org/10.1586/eci.10.96
Tregs have shown considerable potential in treating preclinical models of autoimmunity. These studies have highlighted the importance of Treg antigen (Ag) specificity. Transla...

Natural IgM Is Required for Suppression of Inflammatory Arthritis by Apoptotic Cells

Journal Article
Notley, C. A., Brown, M. A., Wright, G. P., & Ehrenstein, M. R. (2011)
Natural IgM Is Required for Suppression of Inflammatory Arthritis by Apoptotic Cells. The journal of immunology : official journal of the American Association of Immunologists, 186(8), 4967-4972. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.1003021
The clearance of dying cells is vital for re-establishing tolerance during inflammation and has potent immunoregulatory consequences. Because natural IgM plays a key role in t...

Optimising Adoptive T Cell Therapy Following Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Book Chapter
Ghorashian, S., Wright, G., Thomas, S., Hart, D. P., King, J., Voisine, C., …Stuass, H. J. (2010)
Optimising Adoptive T Cell Therapy Following Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. In Y. Reisner, & M. F. Martelli (Eds.), Bone Marrow Transplantation Across Major Genetic Barriers. , (373-395). United Kingdom: World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814271271_0016
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is carried out to correct genetic disorders of the hematopoietic system, as well as to treat hematopoietic malignanci...

Adoptive therapy with redirected primary regulatory T cells results in antigen-specific suppression of arthritis

Journal Article
Wright, G. P., Notley, C. A., Xue, S. A., Bendle, G. M., Holler, A., Schumacher, T. N., …Stauss, H. J. (2009)
Adoptive therapy with redirected primary regulatory T cells results in antigen-specific suppression of arthritis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(45), 19078-19083. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0907396106
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) can suppress a wide range of immune cells, making them an ideal candidate for the treatment of autoimmunity. The potential clinical translation of t...

Monoclonal T-Cell Receptors: New Reagents for Cancer Therapy

Journal Article
Stauss, H. J., Cesco-Gaspere, M., Thomas, S., Hart, D. P., Xue, S., Holler, A., …Morris, E. C. (2007)
Monoclonal T-Cell Receptors: New Reagents for Cancer Therapy. Molecular Therapy, 15(10), 1744-1750. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mt.6300216
Adoptive transfer of antigen-specific T lymphocytes is an effective form of immunotherapy for persistent virus infections and cancer. A major limitation of adoptive therapy is...

WT1-specific T cell receptor gene therapy: Improving TCR function in transduced T cells

Journal Article
Stauss, H. J., Thomas, S., Cesco-Gaspere, M., Hart, D. P., Xue, S., Holler, A., …Morris, E. (2008)
WT1-specific T cell receptor gene therapy: Improving TCR function in transduced T cells. Blood Cells, Molecules and Diseases, 40(1), 113-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcmd.2007.06.018
Adoptive transfer of antigen-specific T lymphocytes is an attractive form of immunotherapy for haematological malignancies and cancer. The difficulty of isolating antigen-spec...

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