Gillian Tomlinson

Dr. Gillian Tomlinson serves as Senior Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Sheffield's School of Medicine and Population Health, while maintaining clinical duties as an Honorary Consultant in Respiratory and Acute Medicine. Her work focuses on respiratory infections with specialist expertise in tuberculosis and interstitial lung disease.

Education:

• BSc (Hons) in Pathology
• MBChB medical degree from Edinburgh University
• PhD in Immunology from University College London
• FRCP (Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians)
• CCT in Respiratory Medicine and General Medicine

Dr. Tomlinson maintains an active research program investigating immune correlates of protection in respiratory infections, particularly tuberculosis. Her innovative work combines human challenge models with zebrafish larval infection systems to dissect host-pathogen interactions at molecular and cellular levels. She pioneered transcriptomic profiling of tuberculin skin test biopsies and identified type I interferon responses as host-protective in mycobacterial infection, with implications for novel host-directed therapies.

Her recent work includes single-cell analysis of post-COVID lung disease, revealing T cell-driven immunopathology in inflammatory and fibrotic lung abnormalities. Current research leverages transcriptional profiling of bronchoalveolar cells to understand immune mechanisms in chronic respiratory conditions.

Key Scientific Awards:

• Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist Fellowship (2016-2024) for 'Tuning the immune response in tuberculosis'
• NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre Grant (2020-2022) for 'Immune pathogenesis of post-COVID-19 lung disease'

Dr. Tomlinson leads collaborative projects integrating human immunology with zebrafish models to identify therapeutic targets for respiratory infections. She serves as peer reviewer for major journals and grant bodies, and contributes to researcher-led teaching in immunology and respiratory medicine through the British Thoracic Society, British Society for Immunology, and European Respiratory Society.