Yvonne Jones grew up on the family farm in mid-Wales. She read physics at Jesus College, Oxford, and for her doctorate shifted her focus to biology, studying in the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics. During her postdoctoral training she learnt protein crystallography and in 1989 reported the three-dimensional structure of tumour necrosis factor (TNF), a medically important cell signalling molecule involved in inflammation. In 1991 Yvonne started her research group at the University of Oxford as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. She investigates the molecular mechanisms by which cells signal to each other in the human body, an abiding interest first sparked by her studies on TNF. Yvonne’s work, built upon strong links with clinically related groups, has provided fundamental insights into signalling systems of importance for cellular immunology, developmental biology and cancer.
In 1999 Yvonne co-founded the Division of Structural Biology within the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford. From 2001-2011 she was a Cancer Research UK Principal Research Fellow. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Member of EMBO.
Professional position
- Professorial Fellow, Jesus College, University of Oxford
- Sir Andrew McMichael Professor of Structural Immunology and Deputy Head, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford
Subject groups
- Biochemistry and molecular cell biology
Biophysics and structural biology, Cell biology (incl molecular cell biology), Molecular immunology, Biochemistry and molecular biology
- Microbiology, immunology and developmental biology
Developmental biology
