Yvonne Jones - Overview
Our research looks at the protein recognition events
that occur at the surface of cells to mediate cell-cell communication.
With structural studies, primarily x-ray crystallography, we aim to address
fundamental questions about cell-cell signaling systems of importance
to human health. How are signalling assemblies arranged? Which features
are necessary for normal signal transduction into the cell? What mechanisms
trigger dysfunctional signalling? Our work ties into a number of interdisciplinary
collaborations centered on the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine
and the Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine in Oxford. The ultimate
aim is to learn how to manipulate these signalling systems for the design
of new clinical therapies.
Current projects within the group fall into three areas: cytokine/receptor
complexes, structural immunology and signalling systems of importance
in developmental biology. One of our most established areas of study is
gp130 mediated cytokine/receptor signalling (in collaboration with the
Cancer Research UK Growth Factor Research Group in Birmingham), a system of direct relevance
to clinical oncology. More recently we have extended this programme to
tackle two other cytokine/receptor families of relevance to cancer research.
Our work on the functional signalling complexes of the TNF-like cytokines,
for example TRAIL/DR5, is directed at understanding the molecular mechanisms
that trigger apoptosis whilst our analysis of the tumour suppressor insulin-like
growth factor II (IGF-IIR) interfaces with local research into anti-cancer
therapies (in collaboration with Cancer Research UK Senior Clinical Fellow Bass Hassan).
Our work in structural immunology has a major focus on recognition complexes
involving MHC class I type molecules on antigen presenting cells. These
complexes govern the response of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and Natural Killer
cells and are of relevance for the design of immunotherapies and vaccines.
Increasingly our focus in this area is turning to systems of relevance
to tumour immunology (in collaboration with the Cancer Research UK Tumour Immunology
Research Group in Oxford). Our third research area is still at a relatively
early stage. Our aim is to target some of the novel interaction systems
emerging from studies in developmental biology. Many such systems are
of known importance in carcinogenesis yet lack any structure/function
characterisation at a detailed molecular level.
