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The British Psoriatic Arthritis ConsorTium has been created to bring together people with an interest in psoriatic arthritis.

its mission is to facilitate and advance research and best practice in psoriatic arthritis in the United Kingdom.

Its main goals are:

• To bring together UK individuals with an interest in PsA
• To create a UK infrastructure to undertake studies in PsA
• To collaborate in studies improving knowledge and outcome in PsA
• To develop and execute research ideas in PsA
• To engage with ARUK clinical study group to facilitate research in PsA
• To engage with the Translational Research Partnerships in PsA
• To collaborate with BRIT-SPA
• To collaborate with GRAPPA
• To engage with relevant dermatology stakeholders
• To develop and disseminate knowledge around PsA and comorbidities 
• To ensure patient and public involvement at all levels

Dr Axel Walther is a medical oncologist and Director for Research in Oncology at University Hospitals Bristol. He is the co-lead for the Cancer Research Theme at the University of Bristol.

He completed his undergraduate degree at Cambridge University followed by Medical School at Oxford University. He trained at the Hammersmith, Middlesex and Royal Marsden Hospitals and obtained his PhD from University College London.

His research interests are genetic markers of cancer risk and outcome, and he has collaborated in the discovery of several low-penetrance colon cancer susceptibility loci, thought to make up part of the inherited risk of colon cancer. Dr Walther has presented these findings at global conferences, published in and reviewed articles for high-impact journals and contributed to textbooks on cancer.

Dr. Abraham is a general physician and rheumatologist. Her clinical interests include inflammatory arthritis namely psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.

Dr. Abraham has been a consultant physician at Imperial and is the current Head of Clinical and Scientific strategic planning and process at UCB Celltech, which she joined in 2018 as Medical Director, Head of New Treatment Strategies Immunology.

She is an expert in the early diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. Additionally, she has expertise in treating patients whose disease remains active despite conventional disease modifying medication including biologics. Her clinical research interests help to inform her decision making in helping to tailor and monitor response to treatments using clinical, biochemical and imaging measures

She undertook her medical training in London, Oxford and Cambridge.

She was a Clinical Lecturer at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and undertook her PhD, as a Wellcome Clinical Training Fellow, examining the effect of glucocorticoids on pro-inflammatory intracellular signalling.

Her novel finding was that a Dual Specificity Phosphatase (DUSP1) renders partial glucocorticoid resistance (J Exp Med 2006).

Dr. Abraham has successfully co-supervised MD and clinical PhD students in experimental translational inflammatory arthritis. These students presented their work at international meetings and have been awarded prestigious prizes.

She has been the Rheumatology academic clinical fellow (ACF) lead at Imperial and successfully facilitated the creation of the first ACF in London. She was also Lead for Undergraduate Year 5 Rheumatology education at Imperial and an Arthritis Research UK student mentor.

She has been awarded grants from STeLi for “Patient-centric Education” and “Joint examination and injection simulation education”.

Additionally, she is engaged in a number of Public and Patient engagement initiatives to help understanding the needs and value of biomedical research.

Dr. Abraham is committed to nurturing and supporting future academic rheumatologists and training future clinical rheumatologists to help lead/support clinical research.

Dr Smith is a Medical Director for Europe having joined Theradex® in February 2010.

He has background training in Medical Oncology with 15 years’ clinical practice experience. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and completed his postgraduate training in St Bartholomew and the Royal Marsden hospital. 

Dr Smith joined the industry with PPD as Lead Medical Director for Oncology (ex-US). His responsibilities at Theradex® include evaluation of the clinical, commercial feasibility and project strategy with clients; protocol development; and selecting and liaising with clinical investigators during the clinical trial progress. He is also responsible for assessing AE and SAEs for selected European studies, commenting and preparing narrative reports for onward reporting to clients, regulatory agencies, investigators and ethics committees as necessary.

Dr Smith is also responsible for medical review of data emerging from clients’ clinical trials and for advising clients on appropriate action to be taken based on the emerging data and to advise on risk management especially risk mitigation.

Dr Smith also has experience in early access patient schemes and advising on integrating market access programs in the product lifecycle development.

Dr Smith is a member of both American Society of Clinical Oncologists and European Society of Medical Oncology.

Dr Christophe Le Tourneau is Head of the Phase I Program Institut Curie, Paris.