- Research areas+
- Research Groups+
- Research Facilities+
- Advanced Proteomics FacilityAdvanced Proteomics Facility
- Containment Level 3 facilityContainment Level 3 facility
- Electron Microscopy FacilityElectron Microscopy Facility
- Flow Cytometry FacilityFlow Cytometry Facility
- Genome Engineering Oxford (GEO)Genome Engineering Oxford (GEO)
- Light Microscopy FacilityLight Microscopy Facility
- Surface Plasmon Resonance FacilitySurface Plasmon Resonance Facility
- The James Martin Stem Cell FacilityThe James Martin Stem Cell Facility
David Greaves
Regulation of inflammatory responses in vivo
Inflammation is the response of vascularised tissues to injury, metabolic disturbance and infection. Acute inflammation typically lasts only a few days while chronic inflammation can last for months or years, and is a defining feature of many important human diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and coronary heart disease.

Macrophages with actin stained green and DNA in blue.

Inflamed human fallopian tube with neutrophils (dark blue nuclei) in a blood vessel.
The Greaves Laboratory is studying the role played by a family of inflammatory mediators called chemokines in the recruitment and activation of monocytes and macrophages during chronic inflammation. We are interested in the role chemokines play in atherosclerosis - a disease process that occurs in arteries causing angina, heart attacks, strokes and peripheral arterial disease.
We want to use our basic science understanding of inflammation biology to develop novel classes of anti-inflammatory drugs. We are using two different approaches, drug re-purposing (e.g. Purvis et al.) and chemical biology (e.g. Lucy et al.)
Current work in the laboratory seeks too identify molecules that can regulate the efficiency of macrophage phagocytosis of both microrganisms such as bacteria and apoptotic neutrophils a process called efferocytosis.
Relevant Publications
2020
Br J Pharmacol. doi: 10.1111/bph.15182.
2019
A Biased Agonist at Immunometabolic Receptor GPR84 Causes Distinct Functional Effects in Macrophages
ACS Chem Biol 14(9):2055-2064. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.9b00533
2018
Front Immunol. 9:1419. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01419.
2017
Front Immunol. 8:1621. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.01621.
2016
Microbiol Spectr. 4(5). doi: 10.1128/microbiolspec.MCHD-0027-