Dr Jaclyn Pearson
Lecturer
Biography
Dr Jaclyn Pearson is a microbiologist by training. She is currently a lecturer in the Infection and Global Health Division within the School of Medicine.
Dr Pearson completed her PhD research in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne, Australia in 2013. She was awarded the Chancellor’s Prize and Dean’s Award for Excellence in a PhD Thesis in 2013, and in 2014 attained a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowship (2015-2018). Here, she was appointed group leader for research on pathogenic E. coli within the Hartland Research Group at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, where she continued her research to decipher the mechanisms by which gut pathogens cause disease and how the human host fights bacterial infections. In 2017, she was recruited as an independent research group leader at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia.
Dr Pearson has been the recipient of numerous awards including the L'Oreal for Women in Science Fellowship (2017), the inaugural Australian Society for Microbiology’s Jim Pittard Early Career Researcher Award (2016), the Victorian Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research (2014), and The Victoria Fellowship (2010). In 2014, she was also shortlisted for the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research along with her mentor Professor Elizabeth Hartland. Dr Pearson is the Director of Postgraduate Research within the School of Medicine and actively supports the professional development of early and mid-career researchers. She has had numerous invitations to deliver motivational talks to students and ECRs.
Research areas
The major focus of Dr Pearson’s research is understanding host-pathogen interactions mediated by highly drug resistant bacterial gut pathogens. Dr Pearson will interrogate these mechanisms using high-priority pathogens including E. coli, Salmonella enterica and Shigella spp. Her research has uncovered highly novel mechanisms of immune evasion by bacterial pathogens, which has provided fundamental insights into how a host combats infection. Her work has been published in internationally renowned journals such as Nature, Nature Microbiology and PLoS Pathogens.
PhD supervision
- Ali Akbari
- Sophie Appleyard
- Muge Cevik
- Theodora Olanrewaju
Selected publications
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Open access
A bacterial network of T3SS effectors counteracts host pro-inflammatory responses and cell death to promote infection
Yeap, H. W., Goh, G. R., Rosli, S. N., Pung, H. S., Giogha, C., Eng, V. V., Pearson, J. S., Hartland, E. L. & Chen, K. W., 24 Mar 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: EMBO Journal. Latest Online, p. 1-22 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Distinct adaptation and epidemiological success of different genotypes within Salmonella enterica serovar Dublin
Sia, C. M., Ambrose, R. L., Valcanis, M., Andersson, P., Ballard, S. A., Howden, B. P., Williamson, D. A., Pearson, J. S. & Ingle, D. J., 25 Jun 2025, In: eLife. 13, p. 1-29 29 p., RP102253.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Harnessing plant-derived terpenoids for novel approaches in combating bacterial and parasite infections in veterinary and agricultural settings
Wiles, D., Pearson, J. S. & Beddoe, T., Apr 2025, In: Current Microbiology. 82, 4, p. 1-20 20 p., 134.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
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Open access
Salmonella pathogenicity islands in the genomic era
Sia, C. M., Pearson, J. S., Howden, B. P., Williamson, D. A. & Ingle, D. J., Jul 2025, In: Trends in Microbiology. 33, 7, p. 752-764 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
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Open access
Murine norovirus infection of macrophages induces intrinsic apoptosis as the major form of programmed cell death
Deerain, J. M., Aktepe, T. E., Trenerry, A. M., Ebert, G., Hyde, J. L., Charry, K., Edgington-Mitchell, L., Xu, B., Ambrose, R. L., Sarvestani, S. T., Lawlor, K. E., Pearson, J. S., White, P. A. & Mackenzie, J. M., Jan 2024, In: Virology. 589, p. 1-12 12 p., 109921.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Norovirus-mediated translation repression promotes macrophage cell death
Aktepe, T. E., Deerain, J. M., Hyde, J. L., Fritzlar, S., Mead, E. M., Montoya, J. C., Hachani, A., Pearson, J. S., White, P. A. & Mackenzie, J. M., 3 Sept 2024, In: PLoS Pathogens. 20, 9, p. 1-23 23 p., e1012480.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
A1 is induced by pathogen ligands to limit myeloid cell death and NLRP3 inflammasome activation
Speir, M., Tye, H., Gottschalk, T. A., Simpson, D. S., Djajawi, T. M., Deo, P., Ambrose, R. L., Conos, S. A., Emery, J., Abraham, G., Pascoe, A., Hughes, S. A., Weir, A., Hawkins, E. D., Kong, I., Herold, M. J., Pearson, J. S., Lalaoui, N., Naderer, T. & Vince, J. E. & 1 others, , 6 Nov 2023, In: EMBO Reports. 24, 11, 19 p., e56865.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
A common human MLKL polymorphism confers resistance to negative regulation by phosphorylation
Garnish, S. E., Martin, K. R., Kauppi, M., Jackson, V. E., Ambrose, R., Eng, V. V., Chiou, S., Meng, Y., Frank, D., Tovey Crutchfield, E. C., Patel, K. M., Jacobsen, A. V., Atkin-Smith, G. K., Di Rago, L., Doerflinger, M., Horne, C. R., Hall, C., Young, S. N., Cook, M. & Athanasopoulos, V. & 11 others, , 28 Sept 2023, In: Nature Communications. 14, 17 p., 6046.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Caspase-8-driven apoptotic and pyroptotic crosstalk causes cell death and IL-1β release in X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) deficiency
Hughes, S. A., Lin, M., Weir, A., Huang, B., Xiong, L., Chua, N. K., Pang, J., Santavanond, J. P., Tixeira, R., Doerflinger, M., Deng, Y., Yu, C. H., Silke, N., Conos, S. A., Frank, D., Simpson, D. S., Murphy, J. M., Lawlor, K. E., Pearson, J. S. & Silke, J. & 10 others, , 1 Mar 2023, In: EMBO Journal. 42, 5, p. 1-21 21 p., e110468.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Speaking the host language: how Salmonella effector proteins manipulate the host
Pillay, T. D., Hettiarachchi, S. U., Gan, J., Diaz-Del-Olmo, I., Yu, X. J., Muench, J. H., Thurston, T. L. M. & Pearson, J. S., 6 Jun 2023, In: Microbiology. 169, 6, 30 p., 001342.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review