Rate My Professor Dave Jones

Professor David Jones is the Professor of Liver Immunology in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University. He serves as NIHR Dean for Faculty Trainees, Principal Investigator for the UK-PBC national research consortium, and was the first Director of the Newcastle University Centre for Research Excellence in Rare Disease. As an Honorary Consultant Hepatologist at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, he leads the autoimmune liver disease clinical service in the North East. Awarded an OBE in 2018 for services to liver disease and training, Jones has over 25 years of experience in primary biliary cholangitis research, starting as an MRC Clinical Research and Clinical Scientist Fellow. He coordinates the RARE-LIVER European Reference Network and leads the Liver Disease theme in the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre.

Jones's research focuses on autoimmune liver disease, particularly primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), investigating T-cell responses to autoantigens, mechanisms of T-cell control and mucosal immune-modulation, biliary epithelial cell damage and fibrosis, genetic factors including the largest Wellcome Trust-funded GWAS in PBC, symptomatology such as quality of life and fatigue using fMRI and in vitro studies identifying bio-energetic abnormalities, complications, therapy, and outcomes. He developed the PBC-40 patient-reported outcome measure and has led phase II/III clinical trials as Chief Investigator. Key contributions include leading the UK-PBC MRC Stratified Medicine programme, which defined unmet needs, developed risk stratification tools, and facilitated FDA approval in 2016 and NHS implementation of obeticholic acid, the first stratified therapy for PBC. His publications include Dyson JK and Jones DE, Bezafibrate for the Treatment of Cholestatic Pruritus: Time for a Change in Management? (Gastroenterology, 2021); Rice S et al., Effects of Primary Biliary Cholangitis on Quality of Life and Health Care Costs in the United Kingdom (Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 2021); Phaw NA et al., Managing cognitive symptoms and fatigue in cholestatic liver disease (Expert Review of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 2021); and Montali L et al., Quality of life in patients with primary biliary cholangitis: A cross-geographical comparison (Journal of Translational Autoimmunity, 2021).