Jerrald L Rector

School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences
Doctoral Researcher

Contact details

Telephone: +44(0)7758 379248
Email: j.rector@bham.ac.uk

Address: University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

PhD Title: Psychosocial and Behavioral Determinants of Immune Aging

Supervisor: Dr Victoria E. Burns and Dr Jos A. Bosch

I am a Marie Curie Early Stage Research Fellow hired in connection with a project entitled “Neuroendocrine Immune Networks in Ageing (NINA)”. This training program is part of an elaborate cross-European “Initial Training Network” investigating the causes and consequences of immune aging.

Qualifications

Master of Science in Kinesiology – Exercise Science

Biography

After finishing my MSc degree in Exercise Immunology, at the University of Houston, in Texas, I started a PhD in psychoneuroimmunology in 2010 at the University of Birmingham, the UK. In 2012, I followed my thesis supervisor Dr. Jos Bosch to the University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands for a year to enhance my graduate training. At the end of 2013, I returned to Birmingham to complete my PhD.

Research

My primary research interest is the psychobiology of aging. In this research, I have utilized concepts and methods grounded in exercise science, psychology, and immunology, and apply these to both experimental and epidemiological studies. The overall aim has been to identify psychosocial and behavioral factors that may determine healthy versus unhealthy human aging.

Publications

Bosch, J. A., Rector, J. L., Turner, J. E., Riddell, N. E., ó Hartaigh, B., & Burns, V. E. (2012). Psychoneuromicrobiology: Cytomegalovirus Infection as a Putative Link between Stress, Aging, and Immunity. In J. A. Bosch, A. C. Phillips & J. M. Lord (Eds.), Immunosenescence: Psychosocial and Behavioral Determinants (pp. 81-100). New York: Springer.

Rector, J. L., Dowd, J. B., Loerbroks, A., Burns, V. E., Moss, P. A., Jarczok, M. N., Stalder T., Hoffman K., Fischer J. E., Bosch, J. A. (2014). Consistent associations between measures of psychological stress and CMV antibody levels in a large occupational sample. Brain Behav Immun. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2014.01.012 (impact factor: 5.612)

Lavoy, E. C., Bigley, A. B., Spielmann, G., Rector, J. L., Morrison, M. R., O'Connor, D. P., & Simpson, R. J. (2014). CMV amplifies T-cell redeployment to acute exercise independently of HSV-1 serostatus. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 46(2), 257-267. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3182a5a0fb (impact factor: 3.71)

Solana, R., Tarazona, R., Aiello, A. E., Akbar, A. N., . . . Rector, J. L., Riddell, N. E., Sanchez-Correa B., Sansoni, P., Sauce, D., van Lier, R., Wang, G. C., Wills, M. R., Zielinski, M., Pawelec, G. (2012). CMV and Immunosenescence: from basics to clinics. Immun Ageing, 9(1), 23. doi: 10.1186/1742-4933-9-23 (unofficial impact factor: 3.45)

Bigley, A. B., Lowder, T. W., Spielmann, G., Rector, J. L., Pircher, H., Woods, J. A., & Simpson, R. J. (2012). NK-cells have an impaired response to acute exercise and a lower expression of the inhibitory receptors KLRG1 and CD158a in humans with latent cytomegalovirus infection. Brain Behav Immun, 26(1), 177-186. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2011.09.004 (impact factor: 5.612)

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