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Medicine
Phone:
(023) 8120 6663
Email:
mark.jones@soton.ac.uk

Dr Mark G Jones BM (Hons), PhD MRCP (UK)

Associate Professor in Respiratory Medicine, Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physician

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Dr Mark Jones is an Associate Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Southampton within the Faculty of Medicine.

Development of effective treatments for progressive fibrosis is one of the most challenging problems in modern medicine.

Mark Jones received his medical degree with honours from the University of Southampton. He trained in general medicine before specialising in Respiratory Medicine, developing a sub-speciality interest in the diagnosis and management of patients with interstitial lung diseases. He was subsequently awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training Fellowship at the University of Southampton, undertaking a PhD with Professors Davies and Richeldi to investigate the pathogenetic role of collagen in lung fibrosis where he developed interests in human relevant in vitro models of fibrosis and the application of novel technologies to advance understanding of human lung fibrosis. As an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer he established the routine biobanking of samples from patients undergoing surgical lung biopsy for the investigation of fibrotic  interstitial lung disease, forming a longitudinal cohort of patients which supported the establishment of the Southampton Lung Fibrosis Group, a multidisciplinary group of investigators studying determinants of progressive fibrotic lung diseases with the aims of developing novel approaches to disease classification, prognostic stratification, and treatment.

Qualifications

Appointments Held

Research interests

Dr Jones’s research is focused on fibrotic interstitial lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis where there is significant unmet need. It is underpinned by strong multidisciplinary basic-translational-clinical interaction, involving multiple collaborations with other Faculties and externally with both Academia and Pharma.

Inter-disciplinary studies

Lung tissue structure is complex and heterogeneous and so is challenging to study in both health and disease. Leveraging technological advances through integrated, inter-disciplinary approaches provides the opportunity to significantly advance our understanding of complex lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.  

With the µ-VIS Centre for Computed Tomography we were the first to image, in 3D, human lung fibrosis tissue at the microscale, so providing new understanding of sites of active fibrogenesis in lung fibrosis and supporting the technology development of 3D X-Ray Histology. This approach is now being applied to improve accuracy of interstitial lung disease diagnosis and identify novel classification approaches.

Through the Institute for Life Science we collaborate with colleagues in Engineering, Mathematics, and Chemistry as well as internationally to perform integrative structural and functional analyses of human lung fibrosis, applying approaches including label free imaging, atomic force microscopy, and multi-scale biomechanical testing to identify and dissect key pathogenetic mechanisms underlying progressive human lung fibrosis.

3D in vitro models of human fibrotic lung disease

There is a disconnect between increasing advances in understanding and modulating fibrosis in the experimental setting utilising animal models of fibrosis, and the very limited translation of these findings into effective treatments for patients. Informed by our inter-disciplinary human fibrosis tissue analyses we establish and validate advanced long term primary human cell-based culture models with human disease relevance for mechanistic and therapeutic targeting studies.

Dissecting determinants of progressive fibrosis

Injury to and/or dysfunction of alveolar epithelium are strongly implicated in lung fibrosis disease initiation, but what factors determine why fibrosis progresses rather than normal tissue repair occurs remain poorly understood. Current research in collaboration with colleagues in Biological Sciences is focussed upon microenvironmental determinants of this process in sarcoidosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, with the aim in partnership with Pharma of pharmacologically modulating aberrant fibrotic lung properties to halt progressive lung fibrosis.

PhD supervision

I am currently the main supervisor for two PhD students and the co-supervisor for three others.

Research group

Clinical and Experimental Sciences

Affiliate research groups

Life Sciences, Respiratory and Allergy

BM5 Cardiopulmonary Module Respiratory Clinical Lead

BM5 Respiratory Student Selected Unit Co-ordinator

Respiratory Effectiveness ILD working group. Member. 2016 – Present

AAIR (Asthma, Allergy, & Inflammation Research) Charity Scientific Committee Member. 2018 – Present

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Dr Jones teaches Respiratory Medicine to undergraduates and postgraduate clinicians.

BMedSc/MMedSc Project Supervisor

BM5 examiner

Dr Mark G Jones
Clinical and Experimental Sciences
Room LF102, F Level, South Academic Block
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Tremona Road, Southampton, SO16 6YD
Telephone: (023) 8120 6663
Email: mark.jones@soton.ac.uk

Room Number : SGH/LF102/MP810

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