Dr Jake Dunning

Doctor Jake Dunning is working in the United Kingdom in the following positions: Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford; Consultant in Infectious Diseases and HCID, Royal Free Hospital, London; Director, NHS England Contact High Consequence Infectious Diseases Network; Honorary Consultant, EPRR, UK Health Security Agency; and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, University College London.

Dr Dunning’s research focusses on emerging and high consequence infectious diseases, covering mechanisms of pathogenesis and transmission, diagnostics, characterization of disease, and clinical trials of potential treatments. Between 2009 and 2013, he worked on the Mechanisms of Severe Acute Influenza Consortium (MOSAIC) study, completing a PhD in viral immunology under the supervision of Professor Peter Openshaw CBE. In 2014–2015, Dr Dunning was the clinical lead for ERGO’s Ebola treatment trials in West Africa, working with Professor Sir Peter Horby. Between 2015 and 2021 he was a consultant at Public Health England, with responsibility for respiratory and enteric viruses, and latterly as the Head of Emerging Infections and Zoonoses and a National Incident Director for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Dunning joined the Pandemic Sciences Institute in April 2021, where he’s leading on PSI’s contributions to the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST), the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (HPRU-EZI), and the European Clinical Research Alliance for Infectious Diseases (ECRAID). He has been involved in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) and the Clinical Characterisation Protocol since their inception, and continues to support ISARIC projects including COVID-19, plague, Lassa fever and mpox. Dr Dunning is also a core investigator within the UK CCP and ISARIC 4C.

Dr Dunning’s clinical practice is at the Royal Free Hospital, London, where he’s a Consultant in Infectious Diseases and, since April 2022, Lead for High Consequence Infectious Diseases. His department houses a nationally commissioned Airborne HCID Treatment Centre, and a National High Level Isolation Unit for treating patients with Contact HCIDs, including Lassa Fever, Ebola virus disease and Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever.

Dr Dunning has been involved in clinical, public health and research responses to viral haemorrhagic fevers, novel coronavirus infections, influenza (seasonal, avian, and pandemic), enterovirus infections, acute flaccid paralysis, orthopox infections, and Zika virus. He has been involved in clinical care and research for mpox since 2018, in the UK and internationally.

Dr Dunning co-leads projects and co-supervises PhD students at the PSI and in the NIHR Health Protection Research Units in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections.

Dr Dunning served as member of the IHR Emergency Committee on the multi-country outbreak of mpox (2022-2023).