Dr Jodie Ackland

Jodie was awarded a LoveLuck Scholarship to study Biology (BSc) at Aberystwyth University (2011–2014), where she explored a broad range of biological sciences. She then pursued an MSc in Biomedical Science (Medical Microbiology) at Cardiff Metropolitan University (2014–2016), deepening her interest in infection and immunity through a laboratory-intensive research project.

Inspired by her MSc experience, Jodie completed an Asthma UK-funded PhD in Biomedical Science (Immunity and Infection) at the University of Southampton (2016–2021) with Professor Karl Staples. Her research focused on the interplay between respiratory tract infections and the lung immune response, utilising both experimental infection models and bioinformatics analysis.

Following her PhD, Jodie joined Professor Tom Wilkinson’s team as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Pulmonary Immunology (2021–present). Here, her work focussed on investigating how infection and novel therapeutics modulate inflammatory pathways and perturb the microbiome in chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD, as well as acute diseases such as COVID-19, with the aim of understanding disease progression and identifying distinct disease endotypes. In 2024, Jodie was awarded an Asthma + Lung UK Early Career Starter Award (2024–2026) to investigate the impact of NTHi on DNA methylation in asthma.