Professor Christopher Buckley is the University’s Kennedy Professor of Translational Rheumatology.

Unlike haematological diseases where the gene (haemoglobin), cell (red blood cell) and clinical
features (anaemia) map well onto each other, the cellular basis for most inflammatory diseases
remains enigmatic. The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) was established to construct a map of the different
cell types involved in forming human organs using single cell analysis with spatial analysis to locate
their position in tissue. Using the principles of the HCA in an Arthritis Therapy Acceleration Programme
(A-TAP) we have assessed how the cellular composition of tissue is affected following treatment with
biologics such as anti TNF across a range of IMIDs including RA and IBD. This therapeutic cell atlas can
be used to instruct and power experimental medicine studies where a common cell-based marker is
used in Bayesian driven basket trials as a common outcome measure in the study.