Jeri-Anne  Lyons, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor 

Interests and Expertise
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). It is thought to result from an immune-mediated attack of CNS myelin by autoreactive T cells specific for myelin components. My research focuses on the immunopathogenesis of MS. Studies are performed on cells isolated from MS patients and in a mouse model of MS called Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE). In particular, the role of B cells and antibody in disease pathogenesis are of interest. Also of interest is the regulation of immune cell activation. A variety of cellular and molecular techniques are used to study these questions.

Recent Publications
Lyons, J.-A., San, M., Happ, M.P., and Cross, A.H. B cells are critical to induction of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) by protein but not by a short encephalitogenic peptide. European J. Immunology. 1999; 29:3432- 3439.


Lyons, J.-A., Ramsbottom, M. J., and Cross., A.H. Critical role of antigen-specific antibody in EAE induced by recombinant MOG. European J. Immunology. 2002; 32:1905-1913.


Lyons, J.-A., Ramsbottom, M.J., Trotter, J.L., and Cross, A.H. Identification of the encephalitogenic epitopes of CNS proteolipid protein in Balb/c mice. J. Autoimmunity. 2002; 19:195-201.


Stark JL, Lyons J.-A, Cross AH: Interferon-gamma produced by encephalitogenic cells induces suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) in primary murine astrocytes. J. Neuroimmunology. 2004. 151:195-200.


A. H. Cross, M. J. Ramsbottom, and J.-A. Lyons. NOS2 regulates cytokine production and VLA-4 expression in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. J. of Neuroimmunology. 2006, 173: 79-86.


A. H. Cross , J. L. Stark, J. Lauber, M, J. Ramsbottom, and J.-A. Lyons. Rituximab reduces B cells and T cells in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Multiple Sclerosis Patients. J. Neuroimmunology, in press.



Invited Publications
Cross, A.H., Lyons, J.-A., and Trotter, J.L. Autoantibodies in Demyelinating Disease. In: Multiple Sclerosis (S. Cook, Ed.) Marcel Dekker, New York. 2000.


Cross, A.H., Trotter, J.L., and Lyons, J.-A. B cells and antibodies in CNS demyelinating disease. J. Neuroimmunol. 2001; 112:1-14.

Lyons, J.-A. The Role of CD1-mediated presentation of myelin lipids in MS pathology. Drug News and Perspectives. 2003; 16:574-584.


Lyons JA, Cross AH: Endothelial cells and adhesion molecules in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. In: Experimental models of MS (E. Lavi, C. Constantinescu, Eds). Springer, New York, 2005, pp. 151-179.

Speaker Topics 
Clinical Chemistry
Immunology

Education
Ph.D., Medical College of Wisconsin(Milwaukee, WI), Department of Microbiology, 1997
B.S., University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Medical Technology, 1989