Alastair Compston
Professor of Neurology e-mail: alastair.compston@medschl.cam.ac.uk
Research Interests
Alastair Compston has a special interest in human demyelinating disease with experience during the last 30 years as a consultant neurologist seeing patients with multiple sclerosis and related disorders. His research focuses on the clinical science of human demyelinating disease with contributions to the genetic epidemiology, immunology and neurobiology, and treatment and repair. He introduced the treatment of multiple sclerosis with Alemtuzumab in 1991 and has remained closely connected with the clinical trials programme that concluded in 2012 using this humanised monoclonal antibody in early relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. Alastair Compston sees patients with multiple sclerosis in the general neurology clinic at Addenbrooke’s; and he is responsible with others for the provision of general neurological services at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon.
Lab personnel
• Dr Alasdair Coles – University Lecturer in Neuroimmunology
• Dr Joanne Jones - Clinical Lecturer
• Mrs Sara Thompson – Research Assistant
• Professor Stephen Sawcer – Professor of Neurological Genetics
• Dr Maria Ban – Senior Research Associat
Principal collaborators:
• Stephen Hauser, University of California San Francisco and group.
• Margaret Pericak-Vance, Duke University and group.
• Jonathan Haines, Vanderbilt University and group.
• David Haffler, Harvard University and group.
• David Miller, Institute of Neurology and group.
• Herman Waldmann, Dunn School of Pathology and group.
• Peter Donnelly, Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford
Recent papers
1. The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. Genome-wide association study of 14,000 cases of seven common diseases and 3,000 shared controls. Nature 2007: 447; 661-678
2. The International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium. Novel Risk Alleles for Multiple Sclerosis Identified by a Whole Genome Association Study. New England Journal of Medicine 2007: 357; 851-862
3. The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. Association of 14,500 snSNPs in four common diseases identifies variants involved in autoimmunity. Nature Genetics 2007: 39; 1329-1337
4. International CAMMS223 Trial Study Group. A randomized, rater-blinded, trial of alemtuzumab versus interferon beta-1a in early, relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. New England Journal of Medicine 2008: 359; 1786-1801
5. Jones JL, Cox AL, Phuah CL, Thompson SJ, Shawcross J, Compston DAS, Coles AJ. Secondary autoimmunity in multiple sclerosis following therapeutic lymphocyte depletion with alemtuzumab (Campath-1H) is driven by IL-21. Journal of Clinical Investigation 2009: 119; 2052-2061
6. Jones JL, Anderson JM, Phuah C, Fox E, Selmaj K, Margolin D, Lake S, Wilkins A, Webber D, Compston DAS, Coles AJ. Improvement in disability after alemtuzumab treatment of multiple sclerosis is associated with neuroprotective autoimmunity. Brain 2010: 133; 2232-2247
7. The International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC) and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 (WTCCC2). Genetic analysis supports a primary role for immune mechanisms in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. Nature 2011: 476; 214-219
8. Coles AJ, Fox EJ, Vladic A, Gazda SK, Brinar VV, Selmay K, Skoromets AA, Stolyarov I, Bass A, Sullivan H, Margolin DH, Lake SL, Moran S, Palmer J, Smith MS, Compston DAS Alemtuzumab treatment of multiple sclerosis: five-year follow-up of the CAMMS223 trial. Neurology 2012: 78; 1069-78
9. Cohen JA, Coles AJ, Arnold DL, Confavreux C, Fox EJ, Hartung H-P, Havrdova E, Selmaj KW, Weiner HL, Fisher E, Brinar VV, Giovannoni G, Stojanovic M, Ertik BI, Lake SL, Margolin DH, Panzara MA, Compston DAS for the CARE-MS I investigators. Alemtuzumab versus interferon beta 1a as first-line treatment for patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: a randomised controlled phase 3 trial. Lancet 2012: 380; 1819-1828
10. Coles AJ, Twyman CL, Arnold DL, Cohen JA, Confavreux C, Fox EJ, Hartung H-P, Havrdova E, Selmaj KW, Weiner HL, Miller T, Fisher E, Sandbrink R, Lake SL, Margolin DH, Oyuela P, Panzara MA, Compston DAS for the CARE-MS II investigators. Alemtuzumab for patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis after disease-modifying therapy: a randomised controlled phase 3 trial. Lancet 2012: 380; 1819-1828
Funding
· Medical Research Council
· Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
· National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the USA
· National Institutes of Health
· Genzyme, a Sanofi Company