ProfessorRosemary Boyton

Prof. Rosemary Boyton Heads Lung Immunology, Adult Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine. Prof Boyton works on the molecular immunology of infectious, allergic and autoimmune inflammation through patient based studies and TCR, HLA class II, lung targeted, inducible (Cre/Lox) and reporter transgenic models. Prof. Boyton studies the interplay between pathogen and innate and adaptive immunity in the regulation of infection and inflammation.

Current research areas include: adaptive immunity in Zika virus, Chikungunya virus and SARS-CoV-2 infection; adaptive immunity in infection with Burkholderia pseudomallei, B cepacia and B. multivorans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus fumigatus; functional correlates of gut and lung microbiota and immune phenotype; lung autoimmunity; stem cells in chronic lung infection; regulation of NK cell responses by activating and inhibitory killer cell immunoglobulin-like (KIR) receptors and understanding how pathogen and self-peptide can modulate NK cell function through altering levels of NK cell activation/inhibition; the role of T cell receptor structure in effector function; correlates of protection in infection and vaccine studies.

Prof. Boyton is on the editorial board of Clinical & Experimental Immunology and a member of the Versus Arthritis UK College of Experts.

Prof. Boyton is an Honorary Consultant Physician in the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Prof and has specialist clinical expertise in acute and chronic lung infection (inc. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), and Aspergillus fumigatus), bronchiectasis and investigation of primary and secondary abnormalities of host immunity to infection.

The research is supported by UKRI, Medical Research Council (MRC), Biotechnological and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Wellcome Trust, Innovate UK, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH NIAID), Asthma UK, MS Society, CF Trust, Versus Arthritis UK, NIHR and Horizon 2020.

With Professor Danny Altmann and Prof. Francois Balloux, Prof. Rosemary Boyton hosted a meeting at The Royal Society, London called "Human evolution, migration and history revealed by genetics, immunity and infection". This meeting offered a journey from molecules to history, bringing together geneticists, immunologists, anthropologists and historians. Infection has been the most potent evolutionary force in human history, eliminating genes offering poor resistance and selecting for new mutations conferring protection against a threat. The meeting addressed the issue of how genetics can help us understand natural selection, human evolution and migration over the past 70,000 years.

Philospohical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Biological Sciences. Volume 367. Issue 1590. Discussion meeting issue, 'Immunity, infection, migration and human evolution' organised and edited by Danny Altmann, Francois Balloux and Rosemary Boyton.

Speakers and Chairs included: Professor Mark Achtman, Professor Danny Altmann, Dr Kristian Andersen, Dr Francois Balloux, Professor Luigi Cavalli- Sforza, Professor Marc Feldmann FRS, Professor Marcelo Fernández-Viña, Dr Sebastien Gagneux, Professor Adrian Hill, Professor Nina Jablonski, Professor Mark Jobling, Professor John Novembre, Dr Stephen Oppenheimer, Professor Peter Parham FRS, Dr Alice Roberts, Professor Erik Thorsby, Professor Eske Willerslev, Dr Sarah Williams-Blangero