About Professor Cheryl A. Jones
Our research focus is to determine the reasons why the immune system of a newborn infant does not protect them against certain viral infections, like herpes simplex virus (HSV) or cytomegalovirus (CMV). These viruses can cause devastating disease if infection occurs in utero or in the first weeks of life, but mild to no disease in older children or adults. We ultimately want to develop ways to prevent these infections in the very young and improve upon the treatment options available to this age group. We also perform internationally recognised national surveillance of these medical important infections that occur before at around the time of delivery (i.e. congenital and perinatal infections) to define the burden of disease caused by these infections in Australian children. These studies will allow us to rationally implement the preventative strategies we develop in a cost effective manner.
Cheryl Jones is a viral immunologist and paediatric infectious diseases consultant at The Childrens Hospital at Westmead and the University of Sydney. She heads a virology research group that studies the immunobiology and epidemiology of infections in the fetus and newborn (Centre for Perinatal Infection Research).
Cheryl Jones’ research program spans laboratory based investigations into immunobiology, surveillance, prevention and treatment of infections in the fetus and newborn transmitted by the mother during pregnancy and delivery (congenital and perinatal infections). While in the United States, she made the important finding that a herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 2 strain, deficient in essential genes for replication, was unable to maintain stable latency in the nervous system (PNAS, 1999). This was the first report of dissociation between the establishment and maintenance of HSV neuronal latency, and provided a paradigm for important safety features of human HSV vaccines. Her systematic review of antiviral agents for the treatment of CMV diseases in transplant recipients (the Lancet, 2005), has revised clinical practice for this condition world wide. Her group in Australia have demonstrated that maternal vaccination against HSV prevents spread of infectious HSV to the organs of newborn mice but not to the brain (J Infect Dis,2002). This has important implications for the design of maternal vaccinations against perinatal HSV transmission, as it highlights that passive transfer of maternal antibody alone will not protect against encephalitis in the newborn. Her group recently applied novel in vivo tracking methodologies of HSV specific CTL responses to the study of the newborn adaptive response to viruses and have documented observed marked age-associated differences in the kinetics, magnitude and longevity of antiviral newborn CD8+ T cell and T regulatory cell responses. This finding has lead to new lines of enquiry into the mechanisms underlying the age-associated susceptibility to viruses that could have important novel therapeutic implications. Her group in collaboration with Prof. Tony Cunningham, WMI, were also the first to demonstrate that HSV causes programmed cell death (apoptosis) of dendritic cells, the first immune cell to encounter the virus, in a species and serotype dependant manner (J Virology, 2003). This effect is in contrast to the anti-apoptotic effect of HSV in virtually every other cell type studied, and highlighted a novel immunoevasive property of the virus that is important for further design of immunotherapeutics. Cheryl Jones and her group have obtained over $800,000 in funding from peer-reviewed internal, national and international grants. She has been awarded 2 international and 3 national research awards. (March of Dimes USA Basil O'Connor Research Scholar Award 2000, RACP CSL Fellowship in Medical Research 2000, International Herpesvirus Management Forum (IHMF) Gertude Elion Research Award 2001, Sylvia & Charles Viertel Clinical Investigator Award 2004, Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) Frank Fenner Award for Advanced Research in Infectious Diseases 2004).