Dr Su Metcalfe University positionSenior Research Associate Dr Su Metcalfe is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students. DepartmentsDepartment of Clinical Neurosciences Home pagehttp://www.lifnano.com (personal home page) Research ThemesInterestsThe application of nanotechnology to healthcare - nano-medicine - is now recognised worldwide as a new era in clinical medicine. By loading biocompatible, biodegradable nano-particles with growth factor, and targeting to sites of tissue damage, a synthetic biologically instructive niche can be created to repair tissues in situ, and/or to support cell survival in regenerative cell therapy. MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: The nano-therapeutic approach is being used to target 'LIF' to treat MS. LIF is a stem cell growth factor involved in myelin repair and neuroprotection, in addition to being tolerogenic for myelin. These three core properties of LIF provide a potentially curative therapy for early stage MS, whilst providing a valuable adjunct to current DMT used to treat MS. 2013: founded LIF-NanoRx Ltd to deliver LIFNano to patients - see LIFNano.com.. AWARDS: 2014 Global GMSI Prize. 2017 Business Woman of the Year, Judge Business School. 2017 Global Award for NanoMedicine.  nano-therapeutic device for delivery of LIF to CD4+ T lymphocytes Click image to view full-size Research Focus
EquipmentCell culture flow cytometry (6 colour) Collaborators
Associated News Items
Key publicationsFlor Rdl, Robertson J, Shevchenko RV, Alavijeh M, Bickerton S, Fahmy T and Metcalfe SM (2021), “Multiple Sclerosis: LIFNano-CD4 for Trojan Horse Delivery of the Neuro-Protective Biologic “LIF” Into the Brain: Preclinical Proof of Concept” Front. Med. Technol. 3:640569. doi: 10.3389/fmedt.2021.640569 doi: 10.3389/fmedt.2021.640569 Metcalfe SM (in press), “" KILLING THE CURE? Is LIF-Trap to treat pancreatic cancer a dangerous case of mistaken identity?" ” Medicine in Drug Discovery https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S2590-0986(21)00033-6 Germain M, Caputo F, Metcalfe S, Tosi G et al (2020), “Delivering the power of nanomedicine to patients today” Journal of Controlled Release Journal of Controlled Release 326 (2020) 164–171 Metcalfe SM (2020), “LIF and the lung’s stem cell niche: is failure to use LIF to protect against COVID-19 a grave omission in managing the pandemic?” Future Virology 10.2217/fvl-2020-0340 C Metcalfe SM (2020), “MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS AND MANAGEMENT OF COVID-19 PNEUMONIA” Medicine in Drug Discovery 5 (2020) 100019 PDF Metcalfe SM (2020), “COVID-19 Lock-Down: de-risking EXIT by protecting the Lung with leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF)” Medicine in Drug Discovery Medicine in Drug Discovery 6 (2020) 100043 PDF Metcalfe SM (2019), “NEUROPROTECTIVE IMMUNITY: LEUKAEMIA INHIBITORY FACTOR (LIF) AS GUARDIAN OF BRAIN HEALTH” Medicine in Drug Discovery 2 June 2019,10006 Su M Metcalfe (2018), “LIF and multiple sclerosis: One protein with two healing properties” Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2018.01.018 Metcalfe SM, Bickerton S, Fahmy TM (2017), “Neurodegenerative Disease: A Perspective on Cell-Based Therapy In The New Era of Cell-Free Nano-Therapy” Current Pharmaceutical Design 2017;23(5):776-783 Metcalfe SM ,Strom TB, Williams A, Fahmy TM (2015), “Multiple Sclerosis and the LIF/IL-6 axis: Use of Nano-Technology to harness the Tolerogenic and Reparative properties of LIF” Nanobiomedicine DOI: 10.5772/60622 PDF Sonja Rittchen, Amanda Boyd, Alasdair Burns, Jason Park, Tarek M. Fahmy, Su Metcalfe*, Anna Williams (2015), “Myelin repair in vivo is increased by targeting oligodendrocyte precursor cells with nanoparticles encapsulating leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF).” Biomaterials 56 : 78-85 PDF Jing-Wei Zhao, Sean Dyson, C.Kriegel, P Tyers, X He, Tarek M. Fahmy, Su M. Metcalfe* and Roger A. Barker (2014), “Modelling of a nanotherapeutic "stroma" to deliver LIF, or XAV939, for use in human fetal dopaminergic grafts in Parkinson's disease” Disease Models and Mechanisms Dis Model Mech. 2014 Oct;7(10):1193-203. doi: 10.1242/dmm.015859. Epub 2014 Aug 1. PDF Kevin Cheng, Fahad R. Ali, , Peter Kirwan, Su Metcalfe, Frederick J. Livesey, Roger A. Barker and Anna Philpott (2014), “The phosphorylation status of Ascl1 is a key determinant of neuronal differentiation and maturation in vivo and in vitro.” Development doi:10.1242/dev.106377 Metcalfe SM (2014), “Stem Cell Therapy versus T lymphocytes: Friend or Foe?” Stem Cells STEM CELLS 2015;33:622–625 PDF Metcalfe SM, Fahmy TM (2012), “Targeted nanotherapy for induction of therapeutic immune responses.” Trends Mol Med 18(2):72-80 PDF Details Metcalfe SM (2011), “Multiple sclerosis: One protein, two healing properties.” Nature 477(7364):287-8 Details Park J, Gao W, Whiston R, Strom TB, Metcalfe S, Fahmy TM (2011), “Modulation of CD4+ T lymphocyte lineage outcomes with targeted, nanoparticle-mediated cytokine delivery.” Mol Pharm 8(1):143-52 PDF Details Thompson HL, Whiston RA, Rakhimov Y, Taccioli C, Liu C-G, Croce C and Metcalfe SM (2010), “ A LIF/Nanog Axis is Revealed in T lymphocytes that lack MARCH-7, a RINGv E3 Ligase that Regulates the LIF-Receptor.” Cell Cycle 9:20, 4213-4221 PDF Gao W, Thompson L, Zhou Q, Putheti P, Fahmy TM, Strom TB and Metcalfe SM (2009), “Treg versus Th17 lymphocyte lineages are cross-regulated by LIF versus IL-6. ” Cell Cycle 8:9, 1444-145 PDF Muthukumarana P, Chae WJ, Maher S, Rosengard BR, Bothwell ALM, Metcalfe SM. (2007), “Regulatory Transplantation Tolerance and “Stemness”: Evidence That Foxp3 May Play a Regulatory Role in SOCS-3 Gene Transcription” Transplantation 84: S6–S11 PDF Metcalfe S, Weeds A, Okorokov AL, Milner J, Cockman M, Pope B (1999), “Wild-type p53 protein shows calcium-dependent binding to F-actin.” Oncogene 18(14):2351-5 Details Chen ZK, Cobbold SP, Waldmann H, Metcalfe S (1996), “Amplification of natural regulatory immune mechanisms for transplantation tolerance.” Transplantation 62(9):1200-6 Details Galat A, Metcalfe SM (1995), “Peptidylproline cis/trans isomerases.” Prog Biophys Mol Biol 63(1):67-118 Details Milner SM (1977), “Activation of mouse spleen cells by a single short pulse of mitogen.” Nature 268(5619):441-2 Details Milner SM (1967), “Effects of the food additive butylated hydroxytoluene on monolayer cultures of primate cells.” Nature 216(5115):557-60 Details Publications2014Dyson S, Fahmy TM, Metcalfe SM * and Barker RA (2014), “Evaluation of effects of PLGA nanoparticles carrying leukaemia inhibitory factor for support of rat fetal dopaminergic cells ” J Nanomater Mol Nanotechnol S2:003. doi:10.4172/2324-8777.S2-003 2012Dong H, Fahmy TM, Metcalfe SM, Morton SL, Dong X, Inverardi L, Adams DB, Gao W, Wang H. (2012), “Immuno-isolation of pancreatic islet allografts using pegylated nanotherapy leads to long-term normoglycemia in full MHC mismatch recipient mice.” PLoS One. 2012;7(12) 7 (12) PDF 2011Metcalfe SM (2011), “LIF in the regulation of T-cell fate and as a potential therapeutic.” Genes Immun 12(3):157-68 Details 2010Szigyarto CA, Sibbons P, Williams G, Uhlen M, Metcalfe SM (2010), “The E3 ligase axotrophin/MARCH-7: protein expression profiling of human tissues reveals links to adult stem cells.” J Histochem Cytochem 58(4):301-8 Details 2005Metcalfe SM (2005), “Axotrophin and leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) in transplantation tolerance.” Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 360(1461):1687-94 Details Metcalfe SM and De S Muthukumarana PA (2005), “Transplantation tolerance: gene expression profiles comparing allotolerance vs. allorejection. ” Int Immunopharmacol. 5(1):33-9 Metcalfe SM, Calne RY, Cobbold SP (2005), “Introduction: immunoregulation: harnessing T cell biology for therapeutic benefit.” Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 360(1461):1641-3 Details Metcalfe SM, Muthukumarana PA, Thompson HL, Haendel MA, Lyons GE (2005), “Leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is functionally linked to axotrophin and both LIF and axotrophin are linked to regulatory immune tolerance.” FEBS Lett 579(3):609-14 Details 2002Okorokov AL, Rubbi CP, Metcalfe S, Milner J (2002), “The interaction of p53 with the nuclear matrix is mediated by F-actin and modulated by DNA damage.” Oncogene 21(3):356-67 Details Vamvakopoulos JE, Taylor CJ, Green C, McNeil K, Wallwork J, Goodman R, Metcalf SM (2002), “Interleukin 1 and chronic rejection: possible genetic links in human heart allografts.” Am J Transplant 2(1):76-83 Details 1999Veldhoen N, Metcalfe S, Milner J (1999), “A novel exon within the mdm2 gene modulates translation initiation in vitro and disrupts the p53-binding domain of mdm2 protein.” Oncogene 18(50):7026-33 Details 1997Metcalfe SM, Canman CE, Milner J, Morris RE, Goldman S, Kastan MB (1997), “Rapamycin and p53 act on different pathways to induce G1 arrest in mammalian cells.” Oncogene 15(14):1635-42 Details 1994Cobbold S, Metcalfe S (1994), “Monoclonal antibodies that define canine homologues of human CD antigens: summary of the First International Canine Leukocyte Antigen Workshop (CLAW).” Tissue Antigens 43(3):137-54 Details Watson CJ, Cobbold SP, Davies HS, Rebello PR, Thiru S, McNair R, Rasmussen A, Waldmann H, Calne RY, Metcalfe SM (1994), “Immunosuppression of canine renal allograft recipients by CD4 and CD8 monoclonal antibodies.” Tissue Antigens 43(3):155-62 Details 1984Metcalfe S (1984), “Cyclosporine does not prevent cytoplasmic calcium changes associated with lymphocyte activation.” Transplantation 38(2):161-4 Details 1981Milner J, Milner S (1981), “SV40-53K antigen: a possible role for 53K in normal cells.” Virology 112(2):785-8 Details 1970Hubbell WL, Metcalfe JC, Metcalfe SM, McConnell HM (1970), “The interaction of small molecules with spin-labelled erythrocyte membranes.” Biochim Biophys Acta 219(2):415-27 Details |