Dr Jane Howard MA, MB, BChir, PhD, FRCP

Dr Jane Howard is an Academic Physician. She is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Endocrinology and Diabetes at King’s College London and Honorary Consultant Physician in Endocrinology and Diabetes at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. She leads the Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes & Immunometabolism Research Group at King's, investigating immune and inflammatory pathways in the pathophysiology of obesity and insulin resistance, where she combines research with teaching and clinical practice.

She has published several highly cited research papers in journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine and Cell Metabolism. She trained in Natural Sciences and Medical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, where she was a Senior Scholar at Fitzwilliam College and was awarded a First Class BA Honours Degree. She completed her Undergraduate Clinical Training in Medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, University of Cambridge (MB BChir). Her General Professional Training as a Junior Doctor continued in Oxford, The Hammersmith Hospital and The Brompton Hospitals, London.

In 1993 she became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) and a Fellow (FRCP) in 2007. Dr Howard is dually accredited in General Internal Medicine and Diabetes and Endocrinology having specialised and practised in Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes at The Hammersmith Hospital and later at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. She was appointed as a Clinical Consultant and Senior Lecturer at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, London in 2003 and subsequently as Reader in Endocrinology and Diabetes at King's and Honorary Consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in 2007.

As a Clinician Scientist, she has a longstanding research interest in the field of immunometabolism. She was awarded a Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Training Fellowship and completed PhD in Physiology at Imperial College, London. Her work was the first to report that the adipocyte-derived hormone leptin, a key regulator of food intake and energy homeostasis, is also an important immune-modulatory cytokine linking nutritional status with immune function (Nature 1998) and T cell development (JCI 1999). As a Wellcome Trust Advanced Fellow, she spent two years as a post-doctoral scientist at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. Her work in the Flier Lab at Harvard investigated the role of suppressor of cytokine signalling 3 as a potential molecular mediator of leptin resistance (Nature Medicine 2004, Cell Metabolism 2006). The close association between nutrient excess and alterations in the cellular and molecular mediators of inflammation and immunity is being increasingly appreciated, particularly in the development of obesity and insulin resistance. Both type 2 diabetes and obesity are characterized by a low-grade inflammatory state. Alteration of immune cell subpopulations in adipose tissue is a major part of this process. Early studies examined the role of adipose tissue macrophages in obesity, but recent reports suggest a key role of the adaptive immune system. Adipose tissue (AT)-associated T cells have been proposed to play an important role in the regulation of body weight and insulin sensitivity. Research in the Howard Lab aims to understand the molecular basis of the role of the immune system and inflammation in obesity and insulin resistance using both in vitro and in vivo models. We have been particularly interested in the role of the immune cell transcription factor, T-bet in this process (Cell Metabolism 2013). Additional projects have looked at the role of T-bet in intestinal mucosal immune responses and mir142 as an immunometabolic regulator (JCI 2019).