Dame Fiona Margaret Powrie (born 1963) is currently the head of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. Formerly she was the inaugural Sidney Truelove Professor of Gastroenterology at the

. She is also head of the Experimental Medicine Division of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine.

Career

Powrie studied biochemistry at the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

, before completing a

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree in Don Mason's lab at the

Sir William Dunn School of Pathology The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology is a department within the University of Oxford. Its research programme includes the cellular and molecular biology of pathogens, the immune response, cancer and cardiovascular disease. It teaches undergr ...

, the

Notable work

Regulatory T cells

Powrie worked with Don Mason at the

studying the interactions of different subsets of

CD4+ T cells The T helper cells (Th cells), also known as CD4+ cells or CD4-positive cells, are a type of T cell that play an important role in the adaptive immune system. They aid the activity of other immune cells by releasing cytokines. They are considere ...

in rats. This work identified that CD4+OX22hi (OX22 is CD45RC in rats and the equivalent of CD45RB in mice, both

isoforms A protein isoform, or "protein variant", is a member of a set of highly similar proteins that originate from a single gene and are the result of genetic differences. While many perform the same or similar biological roles, some isoforms have uniqu ...

CD45 Protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type, C also known as PTPRC is an enzyme that, in humans, is encoded by the ''PTPRC'' gene. PTPRC is also known as CD45 antigen (CD stands for cluster of differentiation), which was originally called leukocy ...

) T cells contained pathogenic activity while

CD4 In molecular biology, CD4 (cluster of differentiation 4) is a glycoprotein that serves as a co-receptor for the T-cell receptor (TCR). CD4 is found on the surface of immune cells such as helper T cells, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic c ...

+OX22lo T cells contained regulatory activity and could prevent the pathogenic activity of CD4+OX22hi T cells These were foundational studies and represented some of the seminal work on

regulatory T cell The regulatory T cells (Tregs or Treg cells), formerly known as suppressor T cells, are a subpopulation of T cells that modulate the immune system, maintain immune tolerance, tolerance to self-antigens, and prevent autoimmune disease. Treg ...

s (Treg).

Intestinal inflammation

Powrie performed post-doctoral studies with Robert L. Coffman at DNAX in Palo Alto, California. Here, she extended her earlier work in rats to mice and developed the "T cell transfer" model, one of the most prominent models of intestinal inflammation where transfer of CD4+CD45RBhi T cells to Rag deficient or SCID mice led to the development of severe intestinal inflammation and wasting disease. This could be prevented by transfer of CD4+CD45RBlo T cells. Using this model Powrie further identified the pathogenic role played by

IFN-γ Interferon gamma (IFNG or IFN-γ) is a dimerized soluble cytokine that is the only member of the type II class of interferons. The existence of this interferon, which early in its history was known as immune interferon, was described by E. F. ...

and

TNF-α Tumor necrosis factor (TNF), formerly known as TNF-α, is a chemical messenger produced by the immune system that induces inflammation. TNF is produced primarily by activated macrophages, and induces inflammation by binding to its receptors o ...

in intestinal inflammation and the therapeutic potential of IL-10 and highlighted the requirement for

TGF-β Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) is a multifunctional cytokine belonging to the transforming growth factor superfamily that includes three different mammalian isoforms (TGF-β 1 to 3, HGNC symbols TGFB1, TGFB2, TGFB3) and many other ...

in the prevention of colitis by the CD4+CD45RBlo regulatory T cell subset Upon returning to the University of Oxford in 1996, first to the Nuffield Department of Surgery and later, the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Powrie used the T cell transfer model to identify the suppressive mechanisms used by regulatory T cells to prevent intestinal inflammation including the requirements for

CTLA-4 Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4, (CTLA-4) also known as CD152 ( cluster of differentiation 152), is a protein receptor that functions as an immune checkpoint and downregulates immune responses. CTLA-4 is constitutively expressed in ...

and the capacity of Treg to prevent colitis driven by innate immune cells as well as CD4+ T cells. Focusing on pathogenic mechanisms the Powrie lab. identified the critical role played by the cytokine IL-23 in driving pathology in the intestine

Therapeutic potential of Tregs

Work from the Powrie lab. identified that Treg could not alone prevent inflammatory bowel disease but could actually cure established inflammation. Furthermore, Powrie was among the first to identify a population of CD4+CD25+ T cells in human peripheral blood that possessed regulatory capacity, confirming these cells as a bona fide T cell subset in humans.

Honours and awards

In 2009, Powrie was appointed as the inaugural Sidney Truelove Professor of Gastroenterology within the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine in Oxford. She was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 2011, and was awarded the

Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine Established in 1986, the Louis-Jeantet Prizes are funded by the Louis-Jeantet Foundation, ''Fondation Louis-Jeantet'' and awarded each year to experienced researchers who have distinguished themselves in the field of biomedical research in one ...

in 2012. Powrie was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(DBE) in the

2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those ...

for services to medical science.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powrie, Fiona Living people Academics of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of Bath British women scientists British gastroenterologists Female fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Fellows of the Royal Society 1963 births Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire