Jeffrey W. Pollard is Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health and Professor of Resilience Biology at the University of Edinburgh. He holds a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and is a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator.  He has a position at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York as the Louis Goldstein Swann Chair in Women’s Health. Professor Pollard received his PhD at Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now CRUK) in London, UK, followed by a post-doc at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, a Lectureship at King’s College University of London before joining Einstein.  He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, He has received several awards most notably the American Cancer Society “Medal of Honour for Basic Science Research” for his studies in tumour immunology. 

Dr. Pollard has performed research in women’s reproductive health for his entire career with a recent emphasis on the mechanisms of action of female sex steroid hormones in controlling cell proliferation and on the tumour microenvironment of breast cancer. In the former program his lab has sought to understand the mechanism of progesterone in negatively regulating oestrogen-induced uterine epithelial cell proliferation and in the preparation of the uterus for blastocyst implantation.  In the latter area he has pioneered studies on the role of macrophages and demonstrated that they promote tumour progression and malignancy. His work has focused upon mechanisms behind these pro-tumoral actions of macrophages with a particular emphasis on metastatic disease.

Current research projects:

• Role of tumor associated macrophages in breast cancer progression and metastasis
• Systemic influence of cancer on hematopoiesis
• Predictive biomarkers for cancer
• Role of mononuclear phagocytes in modulating immune rejection of tumors
• Role of macrophage WNTs in tissue regeneration and repair
• Role of macrophages in development
• Dynamic interactions between tumor cells, macrophages and the extracellular matrix in metastatic sites
• Mechanism of action of female sex steroid hormones in regulating uterine epithelial cell proliferation
• Mechanism of action of selective progesterone receptor modulations in mouse and man.
• MiRNAs in the regulation of uterine cell proliferation

Group Members

• Dr Takanori Kitamura (Chancellor’s Fellow)
• Dr Veronique Miron (Chancellor’s Fellow)
• Dr Bin-Zhi Qian (Chancellor’s Fellow)
• Dr Erin Greaves (MRC Career Development Research Fellow)
• Dr Luca Cassetta (Postdoctoral Fellow)
• Dr Daniel Soong (Optical Imaging Manager)
• Dr Gael Sugano (Postdoctoral Fellow)
• Dr Agnieszka Swierszcak (Postdoctoral Fellow)
• Stamatina Fragkogianni (PhD student)
• Meghan Maslen (PhD student)
• Amy Lloyd (PhD student / co-supervisor)
• Raphael Castellan (PhD student / co-supervisor)

Principal collaborators

United Kingdom

Claire Lewis, University of Sheffield

Neil Henderson UofE

Mike Dixon, UofE

Charles Gourley, UofE

David Cameron, UofE

Stuart Forbes, UofE

Bin-Zhi Qian, UofE

Tak Kitamura, UofE

Gillian Gray, UofE

Mark Vendrell, UofE

Caitrin Pritchard, University of Leicester

Cristiana Ruhrberg, University College London

Europe

Mye-EUNITER – UK representative for the European consortia studying Myeloid cells supported by the intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology.

Susy Scholl, Institut Curie, Paris

USA

John Condeelis, Einstein

Jeff Segall, Einstein,

Lisa Coussens, OHSU

Lisa Weichman, Montefiore, New York

Harriett Smith, Einstein

Rick Kitsis, Einstein

Steve Porcelli, Einstein

Current Editorial Boards / Society Service

• 2005 – present: Editorial Board, Molecular Oncology

• 2007 – present: Editorial Board, International Journal of Oncology

• 2007 – present: Editorial Board, Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia

• 2007 – present: Editorial Board, Cancer Microenvironment

• 2010 – present: Editorial Board, Onco Target

• 2012 – Present: Consulting Editor, Journal of Clinical Investigations.

Current Scientific Advisory Boards:

• 2006 – Present: Campbell Breast Cancer Center, Toronto (Dr. Tak. Mak)

• 2008 - Present: MIT Tumor Microenvironment Program (Dr. Richard Hynes)

• 2012 - Present: Chair, Scientific Advisory Board RAIDs Program-Curie Institut, Paris (Dr. Suzy Scholl)

• 2013 - Present: Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University (Dr Lisa Coussens)

• 2013 - Present: Institute of Science and Technology, Nankai University,Tianjin, China (Dr Luyuan Li)

• 2013 – Present: Breakthrough Breast Cancer, London (Dr Alexandra Bonner)

Societies:

• British Biochemical Society

• British Endocrinology Society

• Society for the Study of Fertility

• American Society for Microbiology

• Society for the Study of Reproduction

• American Association for Cancer Research

• American Society for the Advancement of Sciences

• Harvey Society

• Royal Society of Medicine

• Royal Society of Edinburgh   

• Academy of Medical Sciences

Recent Administrative Positions:

• 2009 - 2014: Director, Specialized Cooperative Center in Reproduction and Infertility Research (SCCPIR)
• 2009 - 2012: Chair, Endometrial Cancer Affinity Group, Cancer Center
• 2009 – 2012: Science Council, Einstein
• 2012 – Present: Director, MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh, UK

Current Teaching Roles:

•  2011 – Present: Critical Issues in Tumor Microenvironment, Angiogenesis and Metastasis (Dr Rakesh K . Jain, Harvard Medical School, Boston)

• 2012 - Present: 21^st Annual Short Course on Experimental Models of Human Cancer- Harvard Medical School (Dr. Raju Kucherlapati, Neal Copeland and Nancy Jenkins) 

Dr. Pollard’s research has been featured in textbooks such as “Molecular Biology of the Cell” and “Pathophysiology” where his work featured on the front cover.  His work has also been featured in many popular science journals including Scientific American, in newspapers and on TV programs in the UK, US and Japan.  One of the most recent was the American ABC program “Breast Cancer: New Options and New Promise’ which went onto win an Emmy award in 2013. Dr. Pollard’s most recent interview with the RAIDs project can be found on the following link: (http://www.raids-fp7.eu/project-overview.html).