Contact details

Professor Jon S Friedland

Chair in Infectious Diseases and Immunity
Department of Medicine

8N21A
Commonwealth Building
Hammersmith Campus

Tel: +44 (0)20 8383 8521
Email:

Prof Jonathan S Friedland

Brief Biosketch

Professor Jon Friedland is Dean of the Hammersmith Campus and Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunity at Imperial College London, he is also Lead Clinician for Clinical Infection at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.  Jon Friedland undertook medical training at Cambridge University and Kings College, London University.  After medical training at London Postgraduate Hospitals and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, he completed a PhD as part of a MRC Training Fellowship.  He was appointed Senior Lecturer/Hon Consultant at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in 1993 becoming Reader at Imperial College in 2000 and Departmental Chair in 2004.

His research interests focus on two main areas.  The first is the innate immune response and particularly the role of matrix metalloproteinase’s in the immunopathology of tuberculosis. The second is the development of novel diagnostics for tuberculosis. During the course of his research, he has published over 145 peer reviewed papers, invited editorials and reviews as well as 3 books.  Our Research team won the Medical Futures Innovations Award for best overall innovation (from 1200).  In 2005, Jon Friedland was awarded the Royal College of Physicians Weber-Parkes Prize Medal for research in tuberculosis. 

Jon Friedland has previously been President of the British Infection Society (2007-2009), now the British Infection Association after the recent merger with the Association of Medical Microbiologists . He is a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation as well as the Chief Medical Officers National Expert Panel on New and Emerging Infections. In 2008, Jon Friedland was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2010.

 Jon Friedland undertook medical training at Cambridge University and Kings College, London University.  After medical training at London Postgraduate Hospitals and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, he completed a PhD as part of a MRC Training Fellowship.  He was appointed Senior Lecturer/Hon Consultant at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in 1993. His research interests focus on two main areas.  The first is the innate immune response and particularly the role of matrix metalloproteinase’s in the immunopathology of tuberculosis. The second is the development of novel diagnostics for tuberculosis. During the course of his research, he has published over 130 peer reviewed papers, invited editorials and reviews as well as 2 books.  Our Research team won the Medical Futures Innovations Award for best overall innovation (from 1200).  In 2005, I was awarded the Royal College of Physicians Weber-Parkes Prize Medal for research in tuberculosis. I am currently President of the British Infection Society. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation as well as the Chief Medical Officers National Expert Panel on New and Emerging Infections. In 2008, I was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.Research Overview

My research fits within the three key themes of The Department of Infectious Diseases & Immunity which are:

·     Academic Clinical  Infectious Diseases

·     Infection & Immunity

·     International Medicine

Research focus: TUBERCULOSIS and mycobacterial diseases

My research focus forms a component of the Tuberculosis Research Group. Tuberculosis kills more people than any other single bacterial infection worldwide. Declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation, current treatments for tuberculosis takes a minimum of 6 months and are often longer. This leads to non-compliance with therapy which is one factor contributing to the worldwide emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms. New approaches to therapy based on greater understanding of the immuno-pathology of disease are required. There are three main strands to my research:

1) UK Laboratory studies focus on the mechanisms regulating tissue destruction and leucocyte migration in tuberculosis.  The regulation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and chemokines are the two main areas of biology.  The majority of work involves cellular immunology and the study of human tissues where when possible. 

In recent times, the group have defined a concept of a “Matrix Degrading Phenotype” in tuberculosis in which there is relatively unopposed MMP expression which leads to tissue destruction.  Further work identified MMPs particularly involved in human immune responses to tuberculosis and has started to dissect the intracellular pathways which regulate MMP secretion.  My interest focuses on monocytes and macrophages as well as on parenchymal cells including respiratory epithelial cells, fibroblasts, and astrocytes in the central nervous system.  The majority of studies concern pulmonary tuberculosis but there is an increasing amount of work on CNS tuberculosis; these two main forms of infection responsible for the majority of mortality.

In addition, in the laboratory there is some parallel research on two other infections:  (a) respiratory syncytial virus infection  (b) cysticercosis.

2) The Imperial / Cayetano / Johns HopkinsPeru Research Collaboration.

The second main area of research is the above collaboration which is funded in large part through The Imperial College Wellcome Trust Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine of which I am a grant holder.  The main research focus remains tuberculosis with the principle areas being;

 ·     Development of novel, affordable diagnostics

·     The immunology of tuberculosis in patients

·     Susceptibility to infection.    

In addition, there is ongoing work on the immune response to neurocystercycosis in collaboration with the world leading group in Peru led by Dr Hugo Garcia and Professor R H Gilman. 

3) The International Health Unit which I co-direct with Dr Alison Holmes is the site of my third area of interest which is concerned with the health of migrants and in particular, infectious diseases in migrants. 

Selected Publications