Professor Janet M Lord FMedSci

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing Director of the MRC-Arthritis Research UK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 371 3234
Telephone (2): +44 (0)121 371 3243 (PA)
Fax: +44 (0)121 371 3203
Email: j.m.lord@bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @Lord_lab

Address: Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Birmingham University Research labs.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Mindelsohn Way,
Birmingham
B15 2WB

Janet Lord is Director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, a multidisciplinary research institute which brings together fundamental scientists and clinicians to translate understanding of the process of inflammation in to new treatments for chronic age-related inflammatory disease and the consequences of major trauma.

Her own research focusses on the dysregulation of immunity in old age, in particular the decline in neutrophil function and how this compromises the response to infection and tissue injury. She aims to understand the mechanism involved and to develop novel therapies to improve immunity in older adults.

Qualifications

Professor of Immune Cell Biology
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences 2015
PhD Biological Sciences 1983
BSc (Hons) Human Biology 1979

Biography

Janet Lord is Professor of Immune Cell Biology and director of the Institute for Inflammation and Ageing at Birmingham University. She is also director of the MRC-Arthritis Research UK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research. She is the theme lead for sarcopaenia in the Birmingham NIHR BRC in Inflammation and leads the acute response to injury themes in the NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre and the Scar Free Foundation Centre for Burns Research. Her primary research focus is on the effect of ageing upon immune function and how this limits the ability of older adults to resolve inflammation occurring in response to infectious challenge or injury. This has led her to research neutrophil function in healthy elders and also after hip fracture and during infections such as pneumonia. She also researches the link between chronic systemic inflammation and physical frailty in old age and has published papers showing that much of the increased systemic inflammation and sarcopaenia associated with ageing can be prevented by high levels of physical activity in adulthood.

Professor Lord has a particular interest in the role played by stress (physical and psychological) and the altered HPA axis in modulating immunity and frailty in old age and following an injury such as hip fracture. She has published several papers showing that a heightened HPA axis (increased cortisol:DHEAS ratio) is associated with poor outcomes after hip fracture.

In 2013 she was awarded the Lord Cohen of Birkenhead medal for her outstanding research in human ageing by the British Society for Research in to Ageing. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015. She has published over 200 original papers and reviews.

Teaching

Module lead, Biology of Ageing, BSc Medical Science

Lecturer, Immunology and Haematology module, MBChB

Postgraduate supervision

PhD in immune ageing

PhD in Musculoskeletal Ageing

PhD in trauma immunology

Research

The effect of ageing on immunity

Mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal ageing, sarcopaenia and frailty

The inflammatory response after major trauma and influence on patient outcomes

Factors influencing scarring after burn injury

The role of immune ageing in rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/generic/mrc-aruk/home.aspx

www.srmrc.nihr.ac.uk/

www.research.uhb.nhs.uk/burn-injury-research-centre/

Other activities

Section editor for the journal Aging Cell

Publications

Lara J, Cooper R, Nissan J, Ginty AT, Khaw K-T, Deary IJ, Lord JM, Kuh D and Mathers JC (2015) A proposed panel of biomarkers of healthy ageing. BMC Medicine 13:222

Hazeldine J, Hampson P, Opoku FA, Foster M and Lord JM (2015) N-formyl peptides drive mitochondrial damage associated molecular pattern induced neutrophil activation through ERK1/2 and P38 MAP Kinase signalling pathways. Injury 46:975-84

Pollock RD, Carter S, Velloso CP, Duggal NA, Lord JM, Lazarus NR and Harridge SD (2015) An investigation into the relationship between age and physiological function in highly active older adults. J Physiol 593(3):657-80

Lord JM, Midwinter MJ, Chen YF, Belli A, Brohi K, Kovacs EJ, Koenderman L, Kubes P and Lilford RJ (2014) The systemic immune response to trauma: an overview of pathophysiology and treatment. Lancet 384(9952):1455-65

Sapey E, Greenwood H, Walton G, Mann E, Love A, Aaronson N, Insall RH, Stockley RA and Lord JM (2014) Phosphoinositide 3 kinase inhibition restores neutrophil accuracy in the elderly: towards targeted treatments for immunesenescence. Blood 123(2):239-48

Hazeldine J, Harris P, Chapple IL, Grant M, Greenwood H, Livesey A, Sapey E and Lord JM (2014) Impaired neutrophil extracellular trap formation: a novel defect in the innate immune system of aged individuals. Aging Cell 13:690-8

Baylis D, Ntani G, Edwards MH, Syddall HE, Bartlett DB, Dennison EM, Martin-Ruiz C, von Zglinicki T, Kuh D, Lord JM, Aihie Sayer A and Cooper C (2014) Inflammation, telomere length and grip strength: a 10 year longitudinal study. Calcified Tissue Int 95(1):54-63

Duggal NA, Upton JA, Phillips AC, Sapey E and Lord JM (2013) An age-related numerical and functional deficit in CD19⁺CD24^hiCD38^hi B cells is associated with an increase in systemic autoimmunity. Aging Cell 12(5):873-81