ICL
Participant code: ICL
Dr. Richard Aspinall
Dept Immunology, Faculty of Medicine Imperial College London, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital,
369 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9NH. UK
Group’s experience:
Richard Aspinall, BSc Ph.D., was the Chairman of the British Society for Research on Ageing from 1999-2003. His research interests are focused on analyzing age-associated changes in the immune system. His group has recently defined a possible cause of age associated thymic atrophy and are using this knowledge to identify potential therapies for the reversal of thymic atrophy with the aim of improving the immune response in the aged. Dr. Aspinall is a Reader in Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of Science Technology & Medicine. He is also co-editor of Lifespan, serves on the Editorial board of Mechanisms of Ageing and Development and on the Editorial Board of Biogerontology, and has currently edited a multi-author book on ageing.
Personnel involved:
1. Dr Richard Aspinall (M)Group Leader Scientific supervision
2. Post-doctoral research assistant to be appointed
Recent relevant pubblications:
1. Andrew D. & Aspinall R. “IL-7 and Not Stem Cell Factor Reverses Both the Increase in Apoptosis and the Decline in Thymopoiesis Seen in Aged Mice” .J Immunol. 166 (2001) 1524-1530.
2. Pido-Lopez, J., Imami N and Aspinall R “Both age and gender affect thymic output, more recent thymic migrants in females rather than males” Clin. Exp. Imm. 125 (2001) 409-413
3. Aspinall R and Andrew D., “Age associated thymic atrophy is not associated with a deficiency in the CD44+CD25-CD3-CD4-CD8- population” Cell. Immunol. 12 (2001) 150-7.
4. Andrew D. and Aspinall R., “Age-associated thymic atrophy is linked to a decline in IL-7 production” Experimental Gerontol 37 (2002) 455-463
5. Aspinall R Andrew D and Pido-Lopez J. “The affect of age on thymopoeisis” Semin in Immunopathol 24 (2002) 87-101
6. Pido-Lopez, J. Pires A., Nelson M., O’Moore, E., Fisher M., Gazzard B., Aspinall R Gotch F. and Imami, N. “Thymic activitity in late stage HIV-1 infected individuals receiving highly active anti-retroviraql therapy; potential effects of steroid therapy. ” HIV Medicine 3 (2002) 56-61
7. Pido-Lopez, J., Imami N Andrew D. and Aspinall R “Molecular quantitation of thymic output in mice; the effect of IL-7” (2002) Eur J. Immunol. (2002) 2827-36.
8. Aspinall R “Age related changes in the function of T cells “Microscopy Research and Techniques” 62 (2003) 508-13.
9. Aspinall R Henson S and Pido-Lopez J My T’s gone cold, I’m wondering why. Nat Immunol. 2003 203-5.
10. Pido-Lopez J, Burton C, Hardy G, Pires A, Sullivan A, Gazzard B, Aspinall R, Gotch F, Imami N.Thymic output during initial highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and during HAART supplementation with interleukin 2 and/or with HIV type 1 immunogen (Remune).AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 19 (2003) 103-9.