Dr Jennifer Tamblyn MBChB, BMedSci 1st class honours, PhD

Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research
Honorary Clinical Lecturer

Contact details

Telephone: +44 7903047015
Email: j.tamblyn@bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @J_Tamblyn

Address: IBR Tower, 2nd floor,
College of Medical and Dental Sciences,
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham,
B15 2TT

Jennifer is an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at Birmingham Women’s & Children’s Hospital. Funded by a Wellbeing of Women Clinical Research Fellowship, Jennifer utilised her PhD to explore vitamin D metabolism in pregnancy, and the potential effects of vitamin D upon immune cell function within the maternal placenta at the University of Birmingham. To help answer these questions Jennifer utilised a range of novel experimental techniques, including mass spectrometry-based steroid analysis, RNA-sequence analysis, bio-informatic pathway analysis and mathematical modelling. Her central research interests are fetal implantation, early placentation and immune cell function at the materno-fetal interface. Understanding how these processes become dysregulated in women with recurrent failed implantation and aberrant placentation disorders such as recurrent pregnancy loss, subfertility and pre-eclampsia shall help guide future preventative and therapeutic strategies.

Qualifications

Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
PhD Research Clin Ex Med (2018)
MRCOG Part 1 (2013)
MBChB (2011)
BMedSci (2009)

Biography

Having successfully attained a Wellbeing of Women Research Training Fellowship Jennifer completed her PhD at the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research generating unique data on steroid metabolism and immune cell function across human pregnancy. Of particular interest was the transcriptomic response of uterine natural killer cells to vitamin D and immune challenge.

As a Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology Jennifer is now working between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation Trust. Her main research interests surround early implantation, decidualisation and immune cell function at the materno-fetal interface. As research lead for the CHHIP study, Jennifer’s work has maintained a strong translational focus, studying women at high risk of disorders of malplacentation, in particular pre-eclampsia. Moving forward, Jennifer’s hopes her work shall contribute to the Tommy’s pioneering programme of work upon the prevention of recurrent miscarriage and development of potential future therapeutic strategies.

Jennifer is also Academic Lead for the UK Audit and Research Collaborative in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (UKARCOG; 2015) which has established a National trainee network to promote women's health research and deliver high-quality impactful national research projects.

Teaching

University of Birmingham– MBChB2 Small Group Teaching – 2012- 2016
University of Birmingham – BmedSci Small Group Teaching - 2014 – 2017
University of Birmingham 5th year medical student teaching – Large and Small group teaching (Aug 2018- present)

Postgraduate supervision

This is a new skill Jennifer shall develop during her Clinical Lectureship.

Research

Implantation failure and disorders of maplacentation in human pregnancy
Immune cell function and interactions at the materno-fetal interface
Steroid metabolism in pregnancy

Research Groups and Centres

Other activities

Clinical Registrar at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital
West Midlands Obstetrics and Gynaecology Trainees' Committee
Midlands Research Training Collaborative committee member (December 2017 – present)
Core committee UK Audit and Research Collaborative in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (UK-ARCOG)(Sept 2015- present)
Gloucestershire squash county captain (2010- present)

Publications

Zuo J, Quinn LL, Tamblyn J, Thomas WA, Feederle R, Delecluse H-J, Hislop AD, Rowe M. The Epstein-Barr Virus-Encoded BILF1 Protein Modulates Immune Recognition of Endogenously Processed Antigen by Targeting Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Molecules Trafficking on both the Exocytic and Endocytic Pathways. The Journal of Virology 2011. 85: 1604-1614.

Tamblyn JA, Morris RK, Cox P, Hargitai B, Kilby MD. The Role of Ultrasound in Fetal Congenital Myopathy Detection: A Novel Case of Fetal-Onset Cap Myopathy. Prenatal Diagnosis 2013;33(11):1102–1104.

Morris RK, Meller CH, Tamblyn JA, Malin GM, Riley RD, Kilby MD, Robson SC, Khan KS. Measurements of amniotic fluid: association and prediction of small for gestational age and compromise of fetal wellbeing: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Accepted British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2014.

Tamblyn JA, Lissauer DM, Moss PAH, Cox P, Kilby M. The immunological basis of villitis of unknown etiology - review. Placenta 2013;34(10):846-55.

Tamblyn JA, A. Norton, L. Spurgeon, V. Donovan, A. Bedford Russell, J. Bonnici, K. Perkins, P. Vyas, I. Roberts, and M. D. Kilby. Prenatal therapy in transient abnormal myelopoiesis: a systematic review. Archives of Disease in Childhood-Fetal and Neonatal Edition (2015): fetalneonatal-2014.

Fox C, Tamblyn J, Morris R, Kilby M. PFM.04 Diagnostic accuracy systematic review of ultrasound in the first trimester to predict TTTS in uncomplicated MCDA twins. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2014;99 Suppl 1:A84.

Tamblyn JA, Hewison M, Wagner CL, Bulmer JN, Kilby MD. Immunological role of vitamin D at the maternal-fetal interface. J Endocrinol. 2015 Mar;224(3):R107-R121.

Tamblyn JA, Susarla R, Jenkinson C, Jeffery L, Ohizua O, Chun R, Chan S, Kilby M, Hewison M. Dysregulation of Maternal and Placental Vitamin D Metabolism in Preeclampsia. Placenta 50, 70-77. 2016 Dec 18.

Wattar B, Tamblyn JA, Parry-Smith W, Prior M, Van Der Nelson H. Management of obstetric postpartum hemorrhage: a national service evaluation of current practice in the UK. On behalf of UK Audit and Research trainee Collaborative in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (UKARCOG). Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2017; 10: 1–6.

Wattar B, Tamblyn JA. On behalf of UK Audit and Research trainee Collaborative in Obstetrics and Gynaecology(UKARCOG). All for one and one for all: the value of grassroots collaboration in clinical research. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology 2017; 215: 213 – 214

Powell R, Lissauer D, Tamblyn JA, Beggs A, Cox P. Highly differentiated effector T cells within human decidua exhibit fetal-specificity and a strong transcriptional response to interferon. J Immunol. 2017;199(10):3406-3417

Liu NQ, Larner D, Yao Q, Chun R, Zhou R, Tamblyn JA, Wagner C, Hewison M. Vitamin D-deficiency and sex-specific dysregulation of placental inflammation. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2018;177:223-230

Tamblyn JA, Jenkinson C, Larner DP, Hewison M, Kilby MD. Serum and urine vitamin D metabolite analysis in early preeclampsia. Endocr Connect. 2018;7(1):199-210.

Ganguly A, Tamblyn JA, Finn-Sell S, Chan SY, Westwood M, Gupta J, Kilby MD, Gross SR, Hewison M. Vitamin D, the placenta and early pregnancy: effects on trophoblast function. J Endocrinol. 2018;236(2):R93-R103

CHL Beentjes, JP Taylor-King, A Bayani, CN Davis, J Dunster, S Jabbari, GR Mirams, MD Kilby, M Hewison, JA Tamblyn. Defining vitamin D status using multi-metabolite mathematical modelling: A pregnancy perspective. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2019 Jun;190:152-160

Bassel H.Al Wattar on Behalf of the AB-FAB study group. Evaluating the value of intrapartum fetal scalp blood sampling to predict adverse neonatal outcomes: A UK multicentre observational study. Submitted to European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology May 2019

JA Tamblyn, LE Jeffery, R Susarla, DM Lissauer, SL Coort, A Muñoz Garcia, K Knoblich,, AL Fletcher, JN Bulmer, MD Kilby, M Hewison. Transcriptomic analysis of vitamin D responses in uterine and peripheral NK cells. Reproduction 2019; 158(2). https://doi.org/10.1530/REP-18-0509

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