Professor Ahuva Nissim
Professor in Antibody and Therapeutic Engineering
Centre: Biochemical Pharmacology
Email: a.nissim@qmul.ac.ukTelephone: +44(0) 20 7882 3990
Profile
Ahuva Nissim graduated in Molecular Immunology in 1992 from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and was trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering in Cambridge until 1995. During this period she developed phage display semi-synthetic human antibody library, the so call ‘Nissim’ library which has been used worldwide. In November 2000 she was appointed as a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. Her studies are interdisciplinary and involve translational research at the William Harvey Research Institute and with intensive worldwide collaborations. Her studies have been mostly focused on the mechanisms that lead to the formation of disease tissue-specific pathogenic proteins and the exploitation of identified pathogenic proteins to develop platform technologies for novel disease - and tissue-specific, diagnosis and targeted treatment.
Research
Group members
- MD/PhD research fellows: Dr Rocky Strollo (with Prof Pozzilli as part of international collaboration with Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome)
- Students: Chiara Vinci (with Prof Pozzilli), Louise Mary Topping (with Helena Azevedo); Anastasija Pikus (with Prof Leslie)
- Research staff: Dr Michael Tranter; Dr Sagar Raturi, Dr Stella Man
Summary
The main research interest focuses on development of diseased tissue specific diagnosis and targeted immunotherapy to novel neoantigens produced specifically in diseased tissue. The role of oxidants in generation of neoantigen in the diseased tissues as a results of oxidative post-translational modification is investigated. Research is focused on arthropathies and type 1 diabetes but other autoimmune condition such as periodontal diseases have been studied. Hence, a specific targeted immunotherapy for the treatment of arthropathies has been developed. Ongoing research activities include the development of novel human antibody repertoires for engineering of new treatment modalities.
Publications
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Esposito I, Kontra I, Giacomassi C et al. (publicationYear). Identification of autoantigens and their potential post-translational modification in EGPA and severe eosinophilic asthma. nameOfConference
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Strollo R, Vinci C, Man YKS et al. (2023). Autoantibody and T cell responses to oxidative post-translationally modified insulin neoantigenic peptides in type 1 diabetes. nameOfConference
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Gigout A, Harazin D, Topping LM et al. (2021). Early detection of osteoarthritis in the rat with an antibody specific to type II collagen modified by reactive oxygen species. nameOfConference
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Vinci C, Infantino M, Raturi S et al. (2020). Immunoglobulin A antibodies to oxidized collagen type II as a potential biomarker for the stratification of spondyloarthritis from rheumatoid arthritis. nameOfConference
QMRO: qmroHref -
Topping LM, Thomas BL, Rhys HI et al. (2020). Targeting Extracellular Vesicles to the Arthritic Joint Using a Damaged Cartilage-Specific Antibody. nameOfConference
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Nissim A (2019). 016 Targeting combined treatment to arthritic joints by antibody specific to damaged cartilage. nameOfConference
QMRO: qmroHref -
Strollo R, Vinci C, Napoli N et al. (2019). Antibodies to oxidized insulin improve prediction of type 1 diabetes in children with positive standard islet autoantibodies. nameOfConference
DOI: 10.1002/dmrr.3132
QMRO: qmroHref -
Topping LM, Vinci C, Rhys H et al. (2018). OP0260 Targeting neutrophil microvesicles to damaged cartilage using antibodies to post-translationally modified collagen ii. FRIDAY, 15 JUNE 2018
QMRO: qmroHref -
Smallwood MJ, Nissim A, Knight AR et al. (2018). Oxidative stress in autoimmune rheumatic diseases. nameOfConference
QMRO: qmroHref
Collaborators
Internal
- Costantinos Pitzalis (WHRI)
- Michele Bombardieri (WHRI)
- Francesco Dell'Accio (WHRI)
- Gavin Giovannoni (Blizard)
- David Lesly (Blizard)
- John Marshal (BCI)
- Helena Azevedo (School of Engineering)
- James Garnett (School of Biological and Chemical Sciences)
- Roberto Buccafusca (School of Biological and Chemical Sciences)
External
- Paul G Winyard (Exeter)
- Pozzilli Paolo (Rome)
- Iain B McInnes, Carl S Goodyear (Glasgow)
- Frederique Ponchel, Philip G Conaghan, Paul Emery (Leeds)
- Tonia Vincent (Kennedy)
- Maria Infantino and Maurizio Benucci (Florence)
- Howard Amital (Israel)
- Zelig Eshhar (Israel)
- Industrial collaborators from Europe, Israel and US