Professor Ed Vital

• Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist LIRMM
• Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds

Professor Vital  leads a lupus research group with interests in early disease, skin disease, musculoskeletal outcome measures, translational immunology and B cell therapies.

Research Themes 

• Identifying people at risk of SLE for early diagnosis and treatment
• Stratified Medicine and Biomarkers
• Outcome measures
• Lupus arthritis
• Cutaneous Lupus
• B cell therapies
• Type I Interferons in autoimmunity 

Overview

SLE and related diseases such as mixed and undifferentiated connective tissue diseases, Sjogren’s Syndrome form a spectrum of overlapping disorders. Each patient presents with a unique fingerprint of organs involved, severity and response to therapy. This clinical heterogeneity is paralleled by diverse underlying immunopathogenic mechanisms. Targeted therapies offer the opportunity to improve outcomes, but until now overall outcomes of clinical trials have been disappointing.

Our group takes a translational approach to this area aiming to improve both clinical and immunological phenotyping. By doing so, we hope to achieve better clinical trials, novel therapeutic approaches, targeting therapy to specific patients more accurately and improving the understanding of disease processes.

We have a particular focus on skin and musculoskeletal manifestations of lupus. These are the most common in routine practice and clinical trials and have a marked impact on quality of life by causing pain and affecting body image. We aim to improve understanding and treatment of these subsets of disease by exploiting our institute’s established strengths in musculoskeletal imaging and rheumato-dermatology. Our translational and basic science focuses on Type I Interferons and B cells as these are the common targets for new therapies in SLE as well as ANCA vasculitis and other autoimmune diseases.