Professor Dagmar Scheel-Toellner PhD

Dagmar Scheel-Toellner

Department of Inflammation and Ageing
Professor of Inflammation Research

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 371 3220
Fax
+44 (0)121 414 5475
Email
d.scheel@bham.ac.uk
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Address
Rheumatology Research Group
Department of Inflammation and Ageing
College of Medicine and Health
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dagmar Scheel-Toellner leads a research team that investigates the basic mechanism of joint inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. She initially trained as a pharmacist, and the translation of her research on autoimmunity into therapeutic strategies is still an important long-term aim in her work.

She closely collaborates with her clinical colleagues within the Rheumatology Research Group in their investigation of the early stages of the development of rheumatoid arthritis. Currently, a major focus of her work is the investigation of a novel proinflammatory B cell subset her team has identified in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Dagmar has published widely on the regulation of apoptosis and the cell-cytokine network in inflammatory disease. Currently, most of the work in her team is funded by the MRC, Arthritis Research UK, and the EU.

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Qualifications

  • Member of the Higher Education Academy, 2003
  • PhD (Dr rer. nat.) in Immunology and Pharmaceutical Biology, Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, 1994
  • State examination in Pharmacy, (Equivalent of BSc) Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany, 1989

Biography

Dagmar Scheel-Toellner qualified as a pharmacist from the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany in 1989. She went on to study for a PhD in the Department of Immunology and Cell Biology at the Research Centre Borstel with Professor Johannes Gerdes. In 1994 she was awarded the title Dr. rer. nat. (equivalent to PhD in Natural Sciences) by the Christian Albrechts University, Kiel for the thesis: “Investigation of the expression of CD26 in granulomatous tissue and normal peripheral blood.” with the grade “summa cum laude”. (Excellent)

In 1994 Dagmar moved to Birmingham to join the Department of Rheumatology as a post-doctoral research fellow with Mike Salmon and from 1996 also with Janet Lord.

She was awarded a Non-clinical Career Development Fellowship by  Arthritis Research UK in 2004. In the following years she established her research team and was promoted to Senior Research Fellow in 2007.

The Career Development Fellowship was followed by an Arthritis Research UK funded Career Progression Fellowship leading to a substantive post in the School of Immunity and Infection in 2010.

In 2015 Dagmar was promoted to Reader in Translational Inflammation Research, and in 2021 was promoted to Professor of Inflammation Research.

Teaching

Teaching Programmes

  • BSc Biomedical Science - Module lead for Infection and Immunology 2nd Year
  • MBChB
  • PhD

Postgraduate supervision

Dagmar is currently supervising several PhD students working on basic disease mechanisms in rheumatoid arthritis. 

If you are interesting in studying any of these subject areas please contact Professor Dagmar Scheel-Toellner directly, or for any general doctoral research enquiries, please email mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

For a full list of available Doctoral Research opportunities, please visit our Doctoral Research programme listings.

Research

Joint damage in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is driven by a complex network of interactions between resident stromal cells and infiltrating inflammatory cells. Within this network, signals are exchanged via cell-surface interactions and soluble factors such as cytokines and hormones. Dagmar’s group, in collaboration with other members of the Rheumatology Research Group, uses a systematic approach to detect cytokine gene expression in isolated inflammatory cell populations to establish an overview of the inflammatory network in the joint of patients with RA.

Current projects within Dagmar’s team include:

  • The role of a novel proinflammatory B cell population in RA
  • Characterisation of cytokine profiles in synovial tissue and in sorted inflammatory cell populations from rheumatoid synovial fluid
  • The role of neutrophils as producers of autoantigens in rheumatoid arthritis

All of these projects are directed at the identification of new targets and strategies for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Donada, CA, Theisen, E, Zhang, F, Nathan, A, Fairfield, ML, Rupani, KV, Jones, D, Johannes, KP, Accelerating Medicines Partnership RA/SLE Network, Raychaudhuri, S, Dwyer, DF, Jonsson, AH & Brenner, MB 2025, 'Granzyme K activates the entire complement cascade', Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08713-9

Accelerating Medicines Partnership RA/SLE Network, Faust, HJ, Cheng, TY, Korsunsky, I, Watts, GFM, Gal-Oz, ST, Trim, WV, Kongthong, S, Jonsson, AH, Simmons, DP, Zhang, F, Padera, R, Chubinskaya, S, Wei, K, Raychaudhuri, S, Lynch, L, Moody, DB & Brenner, MB 2024, 'Adipocyte associated glucocorticoid signaling regulates normal fibroblast function which is lost in inflammatory arthritis', Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 9859. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52586-x

Bell, RD, Brendel, M, Konnaris, MA, Xiang, J, Otero, M, Fontana, MA, Bai, Z, Krenitsky, DM, Meednu, N, Rangel-Moreno, J, Scheel-Toellner, D, Carr, H, Nayar, S, McMurray, J, DiCarlo, E, Anolik, JH, Donlin, LT, Orange, DE, Kenney, HM, Schwarz, EM, Filer, A, Ivashkiv, LB & Wang, F 2024, 'Automated multi-scale computational pathotyping (AMSCP) of inflamed synovial tissue', Nature Communications, vol. 15, 7503. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51012-6

Martin, CS, Crastin, A, Sagmeister, MS, Kalirai, MS, Turner, JD, MacDonald, L, Kurowska-Stolarska, M, Scheel-Toellner, D, Taylor, AE, Gilligan, LC, Storbeck, K, Price, M, Gorvin, CM, Filer, A, Mahida, R, Clark, AR, Jones, SW, Raza, K, Hewison, M & Hardy, RS 2024, 'Inflammation Dynamically Regulates Steroid Hormone Metabolism and Action within Macrophages in Rheumatoid Arthritis  ', Journal of Autoimmunity, vol. 147, 103263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2024.103263

Law, C, Wacleche, VS, Cao, Y, Pillai, A, Sowerby, J, Sowerby, B, Horisberger, A, Bracero, S, Skidanova, V, Li, ZJ, Adejoorin, I, Dillon, E, Benque, IJ, Pena Nunez, D, Simmons, DP, Keegan, J, Chen, L, Baker, T, Brohawn, PZ, Al-Mossawi, H, Hao, L-Y, Jones, B, Rao, N, Qu, Y, Alves, S, Jonsson, AH, Shaw, KS, Vleugels, RA, Massarotti, E, Costenbader, KH, Brenner, MB, Lederer, JA, Hultquist, JF, Choi, J, Rao, DA & Accelerating Medicines Partnership RA/SLE Network 2024, 'Interferon subverts an AHR–JUN axis to promote CXCL13+ T cells in lupus', Nature, vol. 631, pp. 857-866. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07627-2

Weinand, K, Sakaue, S, Nathan, A, Anna Helena, J, Zhang, F, Watts, GFM, Al Suqri, M, Zhu, Z, Rao, DA, Anolik, JH, Brenner, MB, Donlin, LT, Wei, K, Raychaudhuri, S & Accelerating Medicines Partnership® RA/SLE Program and Network 2024, 'The chromatin landscape of pathogenic transcriptional cell states in rheumatoid arthritis', Nature Communications, vol. 56, no. 4, 4650. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48620-7

Sakaue, S, Weinand, K, Isaac, S, Dey, K, Jagadeesh, K, Kanai, M, Watts, GFM, Zhu, Z, Brenner, MB, McDavid, A, Donlin, LT, Wei, K, Price, AL, Raychaudhuri, S & Accelerating Medicines Partnership® RA/SLE Program and Network 2024, 'Tissue-specific enhancer–gene maps from multimodal single-cell data identify causal disease alleles', Nature Genetics, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 615-626. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01682-1

Accelerating Medicines Partnership Program: RA/SLE Network, Weisenfeld, D, Zhang, F, Donlin, L, Jonsson, AH, Apruzzese, W, Campbell, D, Rao, DA, Wei, K, Holers, VM, Gravallese, E, Moreland, L, Goodman, S, Brenner, M, Raychaudhuri, S, Filer, A, Anolik, J, Bykerk, V & Liao, KP 2023, 'Associations between rheumatoid arthritis clinical factors with synovial cell types and states', Arthritis & Rheumatology (Hoboken). https://doi.org/10.1002/art.42726

Sahlström, P, Joshua, V, Valkovskaia, V, Biese, C, Stålesen, R, Israelsson, L, Végvári, Á, Scheel-Toellner, D, Klareskog, L, Hansson, M, Hensvold, A, Malmström, V & Grönwall, C 2023, 'Autoreactive B cells against malondialdehyde-induced protein cross-links are present in the joint, lung, and bone marrow of rheumatoid arthritis patients', The Journal of biological chemistry, vol. 299, no. 11, 105320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2023.105320

Vidal-Pedrola, G, Naamane, N, Cameron, JA, Pratt, AG, Mellor, AL, Isaacs, JD, Scheel-Toellner, D & Anderson, AE 2023, 'Characterization of age-associated B cells in early drug-naïve rheumatoid arthritis patients', Immunology, vol. 168, no. 4, pp. 640-653. https://doi.org/10.1111/imm.13598

Kang, JB, Shen, AZ, Gurajala, S, Nathan, A, Rumker, L, Aguiar, VRC, Valencia, C, Lagattuta, KA, Zhang, F, Jonsson, AH, Yazar, S, Alquicira-Hernandez, J, Khalili, H, Ananthakrishnan, AN, Jagadeesh, K, Dey, K, Albrecht, J, Apruzzese, W, Banda, N, Barnas, JL, Bathon, JM, Ben-Artzi, A, Boyce, BF, Boyle, DL, Bridges, SL, Bykerk, VP, Campbell, D, Carr, HL, Ceponis, A, Chicoine, A, Cordle, A, Curtis, M, Deane, KD, DiCarlo, E, Dunn, P, Filer, A, Firestein, GS, Forbess, L, Geraldino-Pardilla, L, Goodman, SM, Gravallese, EM, Gregersen, PK, Guthridge, JM, Holers, VM, Horowitz, D, Hughes, LB, Ishigaki, K, Ivashkiv, LB, James, JA, Keras, G, Korsunsky, I, Lakhanpal, A, Lederer, JA, Lewis, M, Li, ZJ, Li, Y, Liao, KP, Mandelin, AM, Mantel, I, Marks, KE, Maybury, M, Mcdavid, A, Mcgeachy, MJ, Mears, J, Meednu, N, Millard, N, Moreland, LW, Nayar, S, Nerviani, A, Orange, DE, Perlman, H, Pitzalis, C, Rangel-Moreno, J, Raza, K, Reshef, Y, Ritchlin, C, Rivellese, F, Robinson, WH, Sahbudin, I, Singaraju, A, Seifert, JA, Slowikowski, K, Smith, MH, Tabechian, D, Scheel-Toellner, D, Utz, PJ, Watts, GFM, Wei, K, Weinand, K, Weisenfeld, D, Weisman, MH, Wyse, A, Xiao, Q, Zhu, Z, Daly, MJ, Xavier, RJ, Donlin, LT, Anolik, JH, Powell, JE, Rao, DA, Brenner, MB, Gutierrez-Arcelus, M, Luo, Y, Sakaue, S & Raychaudhuri, S 2023, 'Mapping the dynamic genetic regulatory architecture of HLA genes at single-cell resolution', Nature Genetics, vol. 55, no. 12, pp. 2255-2268. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01586-6

Abstract

Barney, K, Hagel, V, Clarke, J, Clark, AR, Abdelmottaleb, D, Raza, K, Anderson, A, Wraith, D & Scheel-Toellner, D 2023, 'Generation of a B Cell Model to Investigate the Function of FcRL4 in the Context of RA', British Society for Immunology Congress 2023, Belfast, United Kingdom, 4/12/23 - 7/12/23.

Sahlström, P, Gomes afonso, M, Joshua, V, Valkovskaia, V, Stålesen, R, Israelsson, L, Hansson, M, Scheel-Toellner, D, Klareskog, L, Hensvold, A, Malmstrom, V, Réthi, B & Grönwall, C 2023, 'POS0004 Pro-inflammatory anti-modified protein autoantibodies derived from bone marrow, synovial, and lung B cells preferentially target malondialdehyde-acetaldehyde cross-linked molecular structures', Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, vol. 82, no. Suppl 1, pp. 207-207. https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2023-eular.4681

Comment/debate

Law, C, Wacleche, VS, Cao, Y, Pillai, A, Sowerby, J, Sowerby, B, Horisberger, A, Bracero, S, Skidanova, V, Li, ZJ, Adejoorin, I, Dillon, E, Benque, IJ, Pena Nunez, D, Simmons, DP, Keegan, J, Chen, L, Baker, T, Brohawn, PZ, Al-Mossawi, H, Hao, L-Y, Jones, B, Rao, N, Qu, Y, Alves, S, Jonsson, AH, Shaw, KS, Vleugels, RA, Massarotti, E, Costenbader, KH, Brenner, MB, Lederer, JA, Hultquist, JF, Choi, J, Rao, DA & Accelerating Medicines Partnership RA/SLE Network 2024, 'Publisher Correction: Interferon subverts an AHR–JUN axis to promote CXCL13+ T cells in lupus', Nature, vol. 631. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07845-8

Paper

Scheel-Toellner, D 2023, 'Investigating the consequences of B-cell and fibroblasts interactions in rheumatoid arthritis'.

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