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Medicine

Dr Jo Jefferies PhD, MFPH, FHEA

Honorary Lecturer

Dr Jo Jefferies's photo

Dr Jo Jefferies is Honorary Lecturer within Medicine at the University of Southampton.

Dr Jefferies has a strong research interest in Health care associated infections and has published on Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. She is currently lead investigator on a study using data from the Clinical Practice Research Database to understand the burden of post-operative S. aureus infections in surgical patients. She also has an interest in the molecular epidemiology of respiratory pathogens and the use of high throughput genome sequencing to understand bacterial epidemiology in the respiratory niche.

Dr Jefferies studied Microbiology at the University of Sheffield and gained her PhD in bacterial genetics from the University of Glasgow. In Scotland she undertook post-doctoral research into the molecular epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae, identifying variants of the key virulence factor and vaccine candidate Pneumolysin. She also worked as a senior research scientist in Scottish Meningococcus and Pneumococcus Reference Laboratory to introduce high-throughput multi-locus sequence typing of S. pneumoniae as a routine service in Scotland and developed an interest in Public Health.

In 2007 she took up a post Senior Research Scientist as with the Health Protection Agency, Southampton and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Southampton as a co-investigator on a study with Dr Clarke and Dr Saul Faust to track changes in pneumococci colonising children following introduction of a new conjugate vaccine. She was awarded Honorary Lecturer status in 2010 and obtained in the same year obtained an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr Jefferies is currently undertaking Specialty training in Public Health in the Oxford Deanery and became a member of the Faculty of Public Health a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2013.

Qualifications
BSc, Microbiology, University of Sheffield (1994)
PhD, University of Glasgow (1998)
MSc, Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2010)
Member of the Faculty of Public Health (2013)
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2013)

Research interests

I am a doctoral scientist with a research background in clinical infectious disease microbiology and am currently a Specialty Registrar in Public Health with the Oxford Deanery. My long term aim is to become a consultant in academic public health with a special interest in infectious disease epidemiology; to this end I have maintained an active research profile at the University of Southampton during my Public Health training. My research spans the interface between infection and academic public health. My main focus has been on bacterial infection and colonisation, particularly the impact of conjugate vaccines on bacterial ecology and associated public health implications. Recently I have developed research collaborations with Public Health & Primary Care colleagues at the University of Southampton and have been awarded funding from Pfizer Vaccines to investigate the burden of Staphylococcus aureus post-operative infections using the Clinical Practice Research Database. I currently have over 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals and have presented at national and international conferences.

Dr Jefferies research interests are in the molecular epidemiology of respiratory pathogens, health care associated infections and the uses of routine data to better understand and prevent infections.

Use of routine data for infection research
Dr Jefferies is PI on this study which uses hospital and primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Database to understand the burden of post-operative S. aureus infections in surgical patients. This is in collaboration with Prof Paul Roderick, Dr Michael Moore and Dr Stuart Clarke.

Molecular Epidemiology of respiratory pathogens
Dr Jefferies is a co-investigator on work led by Dr Stuart Clarke to investigate the molecular epidemiology of colonizing bacteria in a number of different population groups


Research Funding

2008 JM Jefferies (PI), A. Smith, T. Mitchell, M. Christodoulides, S. Faust & S. Clarke HPA PPSIF Pneumolysin variation among Streptococcus pneumoniae £8600

2009 J. Webb (PI), S. Clarke, S. Faust, JM Jefferies (PI), L. Hall-Stoodley, & Gates Foundation New Whole-Species Pneumococcal Vaccines $100,000

2010 SC Clarke (PI), JM Jefferies (PI), SN Faust BUPA Foundation Optimising sample collection to detect carriage of bacteria in the upper respiratory tract £230,000

2011 JM Jefferies (PI), PJ Roderick, M. Moore, HM Yuen, SC Clarke Pfizer Retrospective cohort study of S. aureus Disease Following Major Elective Surgical Procedures in the United Kingdom from 2005 to 2009 £231,351

Dr Jefferies co-supervised a number of postgraduate students who are working towards PhD’s and has supervises undergraduate medical students during their BMedSci projects.

She teaches microbiology lectures on the Foundations of Medicine BM5 course and has contributed to the Communicable disease Control module of the MSc in Public Health.

As a Specialty Registrar in Public Health, Dr Jefferies also contributes to teaching on Public Health to 5th year medical students at the University of Oxford

Dr Jefferies is a Member of the American Society of Microbiology and the Society for General Microbiology. She was elected as an infection representative on the Prokaryotic group of the Society for Society for General Microbiology meetings committee in 2011 and has co-organised several symposia.

Dr Jefferies has led on the development of an e-learning package on the use of pathogen genomes in public health for Public Health England.

I have co-supervised one PhD student to completion and currently co-supervise three further students and acted an external PhD examiner. I also teach two microbiology lectures on the Foundations of Medicine BM5 course and contribute to teaching of students on the Respiratory integrated PhD pathway. I contributed to the design of the Communicable Disease Control module of the MSc in Public Health. I previously acted as a facilitator for BM4 Graduate Groups in 2009 and 2010.

As a Specialty Registrar in Public Health I also teach Public Health to 5th year medical students at the University of Oxford and Foundation doctors in the Thames Valley.

In 2013 I submitted a portfolio and was accepted as a member of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Jo Jefferies
Faculty of Medicine, Room AB215, Mailpoint 801, South Academic Block, University Hospital Southampton, Tremona Road, Southampton, SO16 6YD
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