Dr Claire L. Jackson
BSc, MSc, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD) scientist
Profile page(s)
Claire is a Senior Research Fellow and primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) lead scientist.
With expertise PCD diagnostics, cilia imaging and advanced nasal epithelial cell modelling since 2007, she has developed a bio-resource of rare airway samples, tested the effects of drug therapies and bacterial and respiratory viral infections on airway integrity on ciliary function.
During the COVID pandemic, she was instrumental in the discovery of novel short ACE2 isoform in airway epithelia (Nature Genetics 2021). Claire is the diagnostic work package lead for the international ‘BEAT-PCD Clinical Research Collaboration’ network and supports the PCD Support UK patient charity.
Landmarks publications:
1. Legebeke J, Horton KL, Jackson CL, et al., Temporal Whole-Transcriptomic Analysis of Characterized In Vitro and Ex Vivo Primary Nasal Epithelia. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Jun 15;10:907511. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.907511. PMID: 35784475; PMCID: PMC9240208.
2. Jackson CL, Bottier M. Methods for the assessment of human airway ciliary function. Eur Respir J. 2022 Jul 28;60(1):2102300. doi: 10.1183/13993003.02300-2021. PMID: 35595315.
3. Coles JL, et al., … Jackson CL. A Revised Protocol for Culture of Airway Epithelial Cells as a Diagnostic Tool for Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia. J Clin Med. 2020 Nov 21;9(11):3753. doi: 10.3390/jcm9113753. PMID: 33233428; PMCID: PMC7700393.
4. Blume C, Jackson CL, et al., A novel ACE2 isoform is expressed in human respiratory epithelia and is upregulated in response to interferons and RNA respiratory virus infection. Nat Genet. 2021 Feb;53(2):205-214. doi: 10.1038/s41588-020-00759-x. Epub 2021 Jan 11. PMID: 33432184.
5. Walker WT, Jackson CL, et al., Primary ciliary dyskinesia ciliated airway cells show increased susceptibility to Haemophilus influenzae biofilm formation. Eur Respir J. 2017 Sep 10;50(3):1700612. doi: 10.1183/13993003.00612-2017. PMID: 28890436.
Major grants:
ACTIVE: UKRI BBSRC BB/V019848/1Identifying binding partners, biological substrates and antisense oligonucleotides regulating expression of short and long ACE2. https://app.dimensions.ai/details/grant/grant.9530591
Track record of research funding (collectively £38,000 as PI and £191,226 as Co-I): 5 projects as PI (Asthma Allergy & Immunology Research Charity (AAIR), Wessex Medical Research and local Southampton Network on Antimicrobial Resistance, Faculty of Medicine Research Management Committee, and Infection Prevention funding - EPSRC underpinned) and 7 as Co-I (UKRI-BBSRC, AAIR, British Lung Foundation, and NIHR Research for Patient Benefit PB-PG-1215-20014).
Impact example:
The Nature Genetics paper I first authored in 2021 has an Altmetric of 430, with 19K accesses and cited in 38 news outlets. Article Metrics - A novel ACE2 isoform is expressed in human respiratory epithelia and is upregulated in response to interferons and RNA respiratory virus infection | Nature Genetics Ranked in 99th percentile of tracked articles in all journals and 2nd of 51 Nature articles from January 2021. I won the Iain Cameron best publication award in 2021 and orally presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in 2021.
I am the new diagnostic work package lead for the international BEAT-PCD Clinical Research Collaboration 2022.
I was shortlisted for the University of Southampton Vice Chancellor’s inspiring leadership individual award in 2022.