Research groups
Joanna Hester
MSc, PhD
University Research Lecturer
I am a Kidney Research UK Senior Fellow and group co-leader in the Transplantation Research Immunology Group (TRIG).
My research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of immunological tolerance versus immune activation with a view to developing therapies that could benefit transplant recipients and patients with immune related diseases. I am particularly interested in immune cells with regulatory properties, regulatory T cells (Treg) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells and the mechanisms of suppression utilized by these cells. By providing the data on the in vivo efficacy of ex vivo expanded human Treg, my research helped to inform the current clinical study; the TWO Study, in which we are testing safety and efficacy of Treg cells in kidney transplant recipients.
Though my collaborations with colleagues in Oxford and beyond, I am also involved in projects investigating the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy and changes in the immune response in cancer, both in animal models and clinical trials.
Recent publications
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Biomarker and surrogate development in vascularised composite allograft transplantation: Current progress and future challenges
Journal article
Honeyman C. et al, (2020), Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery
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IL-33 drives the production of mouse regulatory T cells with enhanced in vivo suppressive activity in skin transplantation
Journal article
ISSA F. et al, (2020), American Journal of Transplantation
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CD70 expression determines the therapeutic efficacy of expanded human regulatory T cells
Journal article
ISSA F. and HESTER J., (2020), Communications Biology
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The BET inhibitor CPI203 promotes ex vivo expansion of cord blood long-term repopulating HSCs and megakaryocytes
Journal article
ISSA F. and HESTER J., (2020), Blood
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Regulatory cell therapy in kidney transplantation (The ONE Study): a harmonised design and analysis of seven non-randomised, single-arm, phase 1/2A trials.
Journal article
Sawitzki B. et al, (2020), Lancet, 395, 1627 - 1639