Summary
Dr Jonathan Baker is a Research Associate at the Airway Disease Section of the National Heart and Lung Institute. His research interests involve investigating aberrant signalling and inflammatory mechanisms in the respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Using diseased and control primary human lung samples Jonathan's work has focussed on understanding cellular senescence in COPD, as well as examining the IL-36 family of cytokines in neutrophilic inflammation in the lung.
Jonathan studied Biochemistry as an undergraduate at Newcastle University, where he was awarded the Emmerson Biochemistry Research prize for his dissertation. Following the completion of his BSc, he continued his studies at Newcastle University, obtaining his PhD in 2014. During his PhD he studied the family of kinases, named Protein Kinase D, in the regulation of matrix metalloproteinase expression in osteoarthritis. This work was presented at the BSR in Birmingham, in which he was awarded their Young Investigator award.
After completion of his PhD Jonathan started working for Professor Peter Barnes and Dr Kaz Ito at the NHLI. During this time Jonathan studied the role of miRNAs in the regulation of sirtuin-1 and sirtuin-6, understanding the molecular mechanism which lead to the down-regulation of these putative anti-ageing proteins in patients with COPD. This work focussed on understanding the mechanism(s) which drive cellular senescence and the potential use of senolytics and senomorphic drugs in the treatment of COPD.
Jonathan then joined Professor Louise Donnelly research group, where he began examining the role of IL-36 cytokines in COPD. Jonathan's current work has suggested the importance of these cytokines in driving neutrophilic inflammation in the COPD lung and that targeting IL-36 cytokines may be a therapeutic intervention for COPD.
Jonathan assists in the supervision of PhD, MRes, and BSc students and is a member of the American Thoracic Society, European Respiratory Society, and the British Association for Lung Research.
Publications
Journals
Wrench CL, Baker JR, Monkley S, et al., 2024, Small airway fibroblasts from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exhibit cellular senescence., Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol, Vol:326, Pages:L266-L279
Cass SP, Nicolau DV, Baker JR, et al., 2024, Coordinated nasal mucosa-mediated immunity accelerates recovery from COVID-19, Erj Open Research, Pages:00919-2023
Ho V, Baker J, Willison K, et al., 2023, Single cell quantification of microRNA from small numbers of non-invasively sampled primary human cells, Communications Biology, Vol:6, ISSN:2399-3642, Pages:1-11
Ombredane HCJ, Fenwick PS, Barnes PJ, et al., 2023, Temporal Release of IL-1 Family Members from Virally Infected Airway Epithelial Cells Suggests IL-36γ Is the Early Responder, American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Vol:68, ISSN:1044-1549, Pages:339-341
Fawzy A, Baker JR, Keller TL, et al., 2022, Selected Bibliography of Recent Research in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol:206, ISSN:1073-449X, Pages:1408-1417