New Pump Priming Grant: Dr Helen Stark – Mapping How the Body Rejects Transplanted Skin
Each year, the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation awards Pump Priming Grants to give promising early-stage ideas the support they need to get off the ground. We are delighted to announce that this year's £10,000 award goes to Dr Helen Stark of the University of Oxford, for a project that asks a simple but important question: what exactly happens inside the skin when the body rejects a transplant?
Why transplant rejection matters
Our immune system is designed to protect us by attacking anything it doesn't recognise as our own. That is vital for fighting infection, but it creates a serious problem when someone receives tissue from a donor. The body can treat the new tissue as an invader and attack it. This is known as rejection.
For people who have lost skin to severe burns, or who undergo a face or hand transplant, rejection is one of the greatest risks. Patients usually need to take medicines that dampen the immune system for the rest of their lives, and doctors still have limited ways to see rejection early, before it causes lasting damage.
The study and its aims
Rejection doesn't look the same everywhere. It can behave quite differently from one part of the body to another, and changes in the skin may offer clues about what is happening elsewhere.
Dr Stark will study a unique collection of skin biopsies: small samples of tissue taken from transplant patients. Using the latest laboratory techniques, she aims to create what scientists call a "spatial molecular signature" of rejection. In plain terms, this is a detailed map showing which molecules are active as rejection takes hold, and exactly where they sit within the skin. Knowing both what is happening and where could reveal new ways to detect rejection sooner, and new targets for treatments to prevent it.
Expert support and scientific collaboration
Dr Stark has completed her doctorate (DPhil) and is already widely published. She is supervised by Professor Fadi Issa, himself a previous BMRF grant recipient. She will also be mentored by Mr Christopher Bricogne, whose current BMRF-funded project in the same research group is exploring whether a skin patch could act as an early warning sign of lung transplant rejection.
The two projects are distinct but complementary, and together they show how an early investment can grow into a thriving pipeline of researchers. Trustees were unanimous in their support for the proposal, recognising its potential for burns patients and for facial transplantation.
Looking to the future
Understanding rejection in the skin could ultimately help doctors protect transplants more effectively and reduce the long-term burden of treatment for patients. Dr Stark's project is exactly what our Pump Priming Grants are designed to support: innovative, early-stage research with the potential to make a real difference to people living with burns and complex injuries.
We look forward to sharing her progress.
If you would like to support research like Dr Stark's, please visit blondmcindoe.org/support-us or contact admin@blondmcindoe.org.
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