Abstract

Professor Mark Peakman Trained in medicine at University College Hospital and pursued postgraduate training in clinical immunology. PhD in immunology of type 1 diabetes followed by senior clinical research fellowship at University of Pittsburgh on identification of naturally processed and presented T cell epitopes. Established research group at King’s College London in the Department of Immunobiology.

Research Interests: The main focus of the research group is the immunopathogenesis of the autoimmune disease, type 1 diabetes (T1D). T1D is the third commonest autoimmune disease in the UK after thyroid autoimmunity and rheumatoid arthritis. Because it is a chronic condition typically diagnosed in early childhood its impact on morbidity and mortality through cardiovascular, renal and visual complications is considerable; as a result it costs the NHS around £1-2 billion annually to manage. Our research focuses on T lymphocytes. Through defining critical disease epitopes we have been able to examine CD4 and CD8 responses to beta cell autoantigens and begin to unravel disease mechanisms. More recently we have used this knowledge to conduct the first clinical trial in T1D of peptide immunotherapy.