Associate Head of School (Medicine), Principal Lecturer (Immunology)
I am a T-cell immunologist focusing on immunometabolism in the context of immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) and cancer. I am passionate about sharing research ideas and interests through teaching and public engagement.
Teaching and supervision
I am a passionate educator delivering immunology content across Medicine and Biomedical Sciences courses. I am also the lead for Phase 1 (Campus-based delivery) of MBChB Medicine based in the School of Medicine. This is a role that gives me oversight of medical sciences curriculum delivery and allows me to work closely with a wonderful, diverse, and inspiring team.
I taught several Biomedical Sciences, Pharmacy, Medicine and Surgery courses before joining University of Sunderland. I hold a PGCE in Secondary Science which gives me a strong understanding of the prior learning our undergraduates were exposed to in schools.
Research interests for potential research students
- Chronic inflammation and immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) with a focus on rheumatoid arthritis
- Immune and stromal cell metabolism
- T-cell recognition of antigens
- Cellular therapies for IMID and cancer
Research
My group is currently undertaking funded post-doctoral, PhD, and undergraduate projects looking at:
- Metabolic enhancements for tolerogenic dendritic cell therapy, towards improved efficacy in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
- Metabolic enhancements for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, towards improved efficacy in solid and haematological malignancies.
- The role of cytokines in metabolic priming of adaptive immune responses.
Publications
Article
Falconer, Jane, Pucino, Valentina, Clayton, Sally A., Marshall, Jennifer L., Raizada, Sabrina, Adams, Holly, Philp, Andrew, Clark, Andrew R., Filer, Andrew, Raza, Karim, Young, Stephen P. and Buckley, Christopher D. (2021) Spontaneously Resolving Joint Inflammation Is Characterised by Metabolic Agility of Fibroblast-Like Synoviocytes. Frontiers in Immunology, 12. p. 725641. ISSN 1664-3224
Falconer, Jane, Murphy, AN, Young, SP, Clark, AR, Tiziani, S, Guma, M and Buckley, CD (2018) Synovial cell metabolism and chronic inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis and Rheumatology, 70 (7). pp. 984-999. ISSN 2326-5205
Falconer, Jane (2017) Toward cellular biomarkers for rheumatoid arthritis: Biomarkers in RA. Rheumatology. pp. 174-175. ISSN 1462-0332
Falconer, Jane, Tibbitt, C, Stoop, J, van Eden, W, Robinson, JH and Hilkens, CMU (2016) Reduced TCR-dependent activation through citrullination of a T-cell epitope enhances Th17 development by disruption of the STAT3/5 balance. European Journal of Immunology, 46. pp. 1633-1643. ISSN 1521-4141
Falconer, Jane, Mahida, R, Venkatesh, D, Pearson, J and Robinson, JH (2016) Unconventional T-cell recognition of an arthritogenic epitope of proteoglycan aggrecan released from degrading cartilage. Immunology, 147 (4). pp. 389-398. ISSN 1365-2567
Falconer, Jane and Buckley, CD (2015) The two faces of Rsk2 in hyperplastic disease. Nature Reviews Rheumatology. ISSN 1759-4804
Falconer, Jane, Werner, A, Cockell, S, Carlile, Mark, Alnumeir, Sammer and Robinson, JH (2014) Contribution of natural antisense transcription to an endogenous siRNA signature in human cells. BMC Genomics, 15 (19). ISSN 1471-2164
Falconer, Jane, Lowes, K, Furmanski, AL, Dyson, J, Ng, WF and Robinson, JH (2013) Intramolecular polyspecificity in CD4 T-cell recognition of Ad-restricted epitopes of proteoglycan aggrecan. Immunology, 177 (9). pp. 5840-5851. ISSN 1365-2567
Falconer, Jane, Tudhope, SJ, von Delwig, A, Pratt, A, Woolridge, T, Wilson, G, Isaacs, JD and Ng, WF (2010) Profound invariant natural killer T-cell deficiency in inflammatory arthritis. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 69-10 (10). ISSN 1468-2060
Falconer, Jane, Aust, JG, Gays, F, Reid, DM, Toyama-Sorimachi, N, Taylor, PR and Brooks, CG (2006) Ly49B Is Expressed on Multiple Subpopulations of Myeloid Cells. Journal of Immunology, 177 (9). ISSN 1550-6606
- Lymphocyte biology
- Antigen processing and presentation
- Metabolism
- Stromal cell biology
- Chronic inflammation
- Immune-medicated inflammatory diseases (IMID)
- Cellular therapies
I completed a BSc (Hons) in Medical Microbiology and Immunology at Newcastle University before embarking upon a Nuffield Foundation-funded four year PhD at the same institution as part of the Oliver Bird Rheumatism Programme. This incorporated an MRes in Medical and Molecular Biosciences and culminated in a thesis entitled ‘T-cell recognition of proteoglycan aggrecan, a candidate autoantigen in inflammatory arthritis'.
I carried out postdoctoral research investigating antigen presentation and CD4+ T-cell responses in the human rheumatoid arthritis joint and in the cystic fibrosis lung, and continued these research interests as a Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at Northumbria University.
In 2014, I moved to University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow in Rheumatology and was promoted to Lecturer in Inflammation and Ageing in 2017.
I came to University of Sunderland in time for us to welcome our first cohort of Medical students in 2019.
Throughout my career, I have worked with the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne delivering diverse public engagement programmes to school groups and the public.
I hold a PGCE in Secondary Science.
