London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Professor Jayne Sutherland’s inaugural lecture will explore her portfolio of research in immunology, starting from her time as a PhD student in Australia using castration to regenerate the aging immune system, her time in London focusing on immune regeneration following stem cell transplantation, to her current work on tuberculosis (TB) in Africa.

During her lecture she will discuss the cross-cutting nature of immunology which allowed her to change disciplines (with pros and cons) and how her 20 years working at the MRC Unit in The Gambia enabled her to develop skills in clinical immunology and global health research with a direct impact on patient well-being.

Jayne will discuss how TB keeps immunologists on their toes – with changes in immune responses at each stage of the infection and disease, a long trajectory of disease progression, and the importance of clinical cohorts in TB endemic settings. The lecture will reflect on the critical multi-site and multi-disciplinary studies required for development of new TB diagnostics and vaccines, and how important it is to continue the current momentum, despite the severe reduction in global health funding in recent months.  

The lecture will take place from 17:15 - 18:15, followed by a 1-hour in-person drinks reception in the Pumphandle Social.

Speaker

Professor Jayne Sutherland

Professor Jayne Sutherland is a Professor of Immunology in the ITD faculty at LSHTM and Head of the TB research group at the MRC Unit in The Gambia. Her PhD and early post-doctoral career were spent in Australia and London respectively with a focus on immunotherapy for cancer; she changed research objectives to infectious disease immunology when she moved to the MRC Unit, The Gambia (MRCG). The TBCC cohort is one of the longest running case-contact cohorts worldwide and provides a unique opportunity for multi-disciplinary research. It is run in close collaboration with the national TB program to promote health systems strengthening and public engagement. Underpinning all our studies is fundamental science to determine mechanisms, risk factors, and biomarkers/correlates of risk for TB infection and disease. Current research projects in her laboratory include elucidating the risk factors for long-term lung pathology in TB; defining the role of non-classical T cells, B cells and antibodies in the early response to Mtb infection; defining correlates of risk for progression to active TB; understanding immunity at the site of infection; immunity to TB in the context of HIV and other co-infections (including Influenza) and development of rapid diagnostic tests for TB.

Event notices

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