A new film celebrating some of the world’s leading scientists is being launched today.  

As the Pears Building – home to the UCL Institute of Immunity and Transplantation (IIT) – marks its third birthday, the film offers a snapshot of the ground-breaking medical research taking place here.  

Director of the IIT Professor Hans Stauss says he hopes the film will engage the public with the researchers and the work happening inside the Pears Building.  

“It focuses on the scientists as people, who they are, what drives them and why they are excited about working with patients to find new cures,” he said. 

The Pears Building is a partnership between the Royal Free London, the Royal Free Charity and UCL.  

The £62 million building took four years to construct and, as well as the IIT, it is also home to the Royal Free Charity and patient accommodation.  

The building has capacity for 200 scientists and the number of IIT research group leaders has grown from 13 to 27 since it opened. 

One of the scientists featured in the new film is Sharyn Thomas, who has worked with the director of the IIT Professor Hans Stauss for 18 years. 

Her work involves manipulating the body’s own immune cells so they can either destroy cancer cells more effectively or control autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). 

She said: “In terms of our cancer work, we are looking at how to engineer immune cells, called a T-cells, so that they express a particular receptor. This receptor allows T cells to bind to cancer cells and destroy them.” 

Sharyn’s work around MS involves manipulating another type of immune cell, called a T-regulatory cell. One of the roles of these cells is to dampen down the immune system, and therefore they prevent the immune system from attacking the body’s own tissues.  

Sharyn said: “In patients with MS, the immune system starts attacking nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. The project I recently worked on was looking at how to manipulate the T-regulatory cells so that they can prevent this attack.

“Firstly, we program the T-regulatory cells that they are only active in places with MS inflammation, and secondly we equip these cells, with a master switch to maintain their dampening down function.” 

Sharyn said being a researcher requires a great deal of patience and perseverance as the work can be painstaking and slow.  

She added: “Sometimes you work on projects for a long time, and they don’t go anywhere. But even then, the work is important because it means you can rule something out.  

“And the cell therapy that we are hoping to achieve is challenging – it’s not like an ordinary drug. Moving from benchwork to a clinical application involves a lot of regulatory steps and it is expensive to make a cell-based clinical product.  

“However, the success that has already been seen in this field spurs us all on to continue with our work. And luckily there is a really supportive environment here at the IIT, and the knowledge and resources available means that world class research can be produced – and importantly, everyone loves working here.”