Profile
Egle Solito obtained her PhD at the University of Pavia. After important spells at the Sclavo Research Centre in Siena and Chiron in San Francisco, USA, she was awarded an EU fellowship (Marie Cure-Biotech program 1994) and she joined the Institut Cochin de Genetique Moleculaire, INSERM, in Paris, France. Here she began a fruitful line of research centred on the transcriptional regulation of annexin A1 in cell transformation and differentiation. In January 2000, she moved to Imperial College London, UK, where she continued her long-term interest in annexin A1 biology and started to investigate the role of this protein in the HPA axis and the brain under the sponsorship of the Wellcome Trust (2003-2012), with particular interest in the role it plays in neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Her research spans all aspects of annexin A1 biology and pharmacology ranging from cell biology through to its role in human disease.
In October 2006 she was awarded a non-clinical Senior Lectureship in the division of Neuroscience and Mental Health at Imperial College London, UK.
In July 2011 she moved to the William Harvey Research Institute (founded by the Nobel Laureate Sir John Vane), Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University, London, UK within the Centre for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics.
Fellowships
- Fellow of the Society of Biology (2014)
- Fellow of the British Pharmacology Society (2013)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA-2011)
- EU Fellow (Marie Curie-Biotech Program 1994)
External activities
- Member of BBB Consortium (2010)
- Member of Inflammation Research Association (1990)
- Member of London Vascular Biology (2007)
- Reviewing for funding bodies: BBSRC, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Medical Research Council Singapore, NIH Grant U.S.A., British Council Israel, ANR-France
- Member of the Editorial board for Frontier in Immunology (2010)
- Frontier in Inflammation (2014)
- Board Editor of Pharmacology Research and Perspectives (PR&P)
Research
Group members
Post Doc: Dr Elisa Maggioli (Post doc sponsored by FISM); Dr Rodrigo Loiola (Post Doc sponsored by CAPES Brazil).
PhD students: Ms Laila T Cardin (sponsored by CAPES-Brazil); Miss Miriam Ries (co supervisor with Dr Magdalena Sastre Imperial College London, sponsored by MRC), Mr Robert Beal (2nd supervisor, 1st supervisor Prof S. Nourshargh); Mr Gareth Purvis (2nd supervisor, 1st supervisor Prof C. Thiemermann, BHF sponsored).
Summary
Impact of peripheral inflammation in the central immune response: immune cell trafficking across brain barriers
As the average age of the population rapidly increases, so too does the incidence of age-associated neurological disease. Hence, there is an urgent need to investigate the mechanisms of senescence and aging to ameliorate the huge social and economic costs of “aging welfare”. It was long thought that the brain was protected from systemic inflammation, but growing evidence shows that systemic inflammatory stimuli, such as infection, also trigger a central response. For example cerebrovascular disease and cognitive impairment are the predominant causes of morbidity in patients with chronic renal failure (CKD), yet studies to date have failed to establish a direct link between traditional vascular risk factors, such as diabetes and hypertension, and these symptoms.
As the primary interface between the peripheral system and the brain, the blood brain barrier is a major player in communication between the two compartments, and, alongside the major brain immune cell, the microglia, represents an ideal target system to investigate how peripheral disease and inflammation can affect brain function. We are particularly interested in how endogenous anti-inflammatory and pro-resolution mediators, known as “resolvins”, and specifically the protein Annexin A1, can be exploited to limit the central symptoms of peripheral inflammation through their actions upon immune cell recruitment across the blood brain barriers into the central system.
Collaborators
Internal: Professor MM Yaqoob (WHRI); Professor Rod J Flower FRS (WHRI); Professor Mauro Perretti (WHRI); Dr Dianne Cooper (WHRI); Dr Andrea Malaspina (WHRI); Professor Federica Marelli-Berg (WHRI); Professor Gavin Giovannoni (WHRI); Professor S. Nourshargh (WHRI); Professor C. Thiemermann (WHRI).
External: Dr Andreas Hofmann (Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia); Dr Helen Christian (Oxford University);Dr Nikolaus Heveker (Montreal University, Canada); Dr Ignacio Romero (Open University, UK); Dr Babette Weksler (Cornell Medical School, NY, USA); Dr Aylin Hanyaloglu (Imperial College, London); Dr Magdalena Sastre (Imperial College, London); Dr Pierre Olivier Couraud (INSERM, University Paris Desc, Paris, France); Prof Daniela Virgintino (University of Bari School of Medicine, Italy); Professor Joan Abbott (Kings College); Professor Britta Engelhardt (Theodor Kocher Institute University of Bern-Switzerland); Dr Veronica DeRosa (IEOS-CNR-Naples Italy); Professor Chris Reutlingsperger (Maastricht University Netherlands).
