Hepatology Research Group
Improving the understanding and treatment of liver diseases Scientists and Physicians work together in the South West Liver Unit at University Hospitals Plymouth to enable local patients to receive improved diagnosis and the most modern treatments.
Their research incudes
- Clinical trials in many forms of Hepatitis and Liver Failure
- Immune Protection from hepatitis C virus and other infections.Led by Dr Dan Felmlee and Prof Matthew Cramp
- Lipid metabolism and the pathogenesis and treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Led by Dr David Sheridan
- Alcoholic hepatitis – to help develop improved treatments and reduce the current very high mortality. Led by Dr Ashwin Dhanda
- Hepatocellular carcinoma – studying how specific genes influence the variable clinical course of this very difficult to treat cancer and seeking blood tests to identify primary liver cancers early so they can be cured. Led by Prof Matthew Cramp
- COVID-19 work – Inflammatory Biomarkers of Outcome in COVID-19 (IBOC) –using our expertise in virology and immunology to study immune responses and immune dysregulation in SARS-CoV2 infection.
- In addition to complex lab tests we are looking to develop a simpler test of cellular immunity to SARS-CoV2 that can be run in any hospital diagnostic lab as a marker of severe disease risk and potentially as a predictor of protection from re-infection. Led by Ashwin Dhanda, Dan Felmlee and Matthew Cramp
