Jennifer Lynn Gommerman is a Canadian immunologist. She is a Tier 1

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in Tissue-Specific Immunity at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. Gommerman has been examining the role of B lymphocytes in Multiple Sclerosis patients and in animal models of MS. She also studies the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in saliva samples from patients with COVID-19.

Early life and education

Gommerman was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, Manitoba but her family moved to

Burlington, Ontario Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is a city and List of municipalities in Ontario#Lower-tier municipalities, lower-tier municipality in Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region at the west end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Can ...

when she was 10 years old. Growing up in Burlington, she attended Ecole St. Philippe and then Lester B. Pearson High School before enrolling at the

(U of T). She subsequently earned her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree and Ph.D. in immunology at U of T before completing a post-doctoral fellowship at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

Career

Following her post-doctoral fellowship, Gommerman became a staff scientist at Biogen Inc for three years before returning to U of T in 2003 as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

of immunology. She intended to continue her work with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

(MS) but eventually broadened her research to include the impact of the mucosal immune system in the gut on diseases such as MS. In 2007, Gommerman received an Early Researcher Award to support her efforts in uncovering the basic set of biological events common to MS and other chronic diseases. In 2014, Gommerman began investigating chronic inflammatory diseases in South Asian immigrants raised in Canada using funding from the Global Challenge Prize. Her research project was entitled the GEMINI Study (Generational differences in Environmental exposures caused by Human Migration: Impact on Incidence of Inflammatory Disease). At the same time, she also assumed the role of graduate coordinator and was promoted to the rank of full professor. As a full professor, Gommerman continued examining the role of B lymphocytes in Multiple Sclerosis patients. In 2019, in collaborating with researchers at UC San Francisco, Gommerman discovered that the intestine is the source of immune cells that reduce brain inflammation in people with multiple sclerosis. As such, increasing the number of these cells blocks inflammation entirely in a preclinical model of the disease. She also began using non-traditional methods to detect dozens of proteins in a single tissue section. She used imaging mass cytometry to study the immune cells found in brain lesions of MS patients. In 2020, Gommerman and her post-doctoral researcher Conglei Li discovered that in utero inhibition of molecular signalling in the guts of mice can compromise immunity in adulthood. This early disruption limits the ability of the immune system to later trigger and generate Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies. It also interferes with the nature and function of cells in the gut that support the antibody response. Early in the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Gommerman helped with developing a blood test to identify who is immune to the novel virus on a mass scale. She helped supply samples from pre-pandemic subjects as well as patients infected early in the pandemic who have since recovered. She was also appointed a Tier 1

in Tissue-Specific Immunity at U of T. She continued to lead saliva testing efforts in this new role and worked with a research team which found that coronavirus antibodies could last at least three months after a person becomes infected with the virus. She also helped organize and lead the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network for research on COVID-19 variants. Beyond COVID-19, Gommerman continued her research into MS and used funding from the

Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada Founded in 1948, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada promotes multiple sclerosis (MS) research and provides education and services to people with MS and their families and caregivers. The society's mission is to seek a cure for MS and to ena ...

to investigate on the interplay between the complement system and glial cells in the hippocampus. The purpose of this project was to determine the changes that occur in the brains of people with progressive MS and how it correlates with clinical disability.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gommerman, Jennifer Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Women immunologists Canadian immunologists 21st-century Canadian women scientists 20th-century Canadian women scientists Academic staff of the University of Toronto University of Toronto alumni Canada Research Chairs COVID-19 researchers 21st-century Canadian scientists 20th-century Canadian scientists Scientists from Manitoba Scientists from Ontario