Jaythoon Hassan

Jaythoon Hassan

Senior Clinical Scientist

Jaythoon is a Senior Clinical Scientist in the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) which is located in UCD. She obtained a PhD in Immunology from Trinity College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists. Jaythoon previously held Research Fellowship posts in The Dept. of Immunology, St. James’s Hospital and The Children’s Research Centre at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin where her research centred on neonatal immunity. Since joining the NVRL in 2005, Jaythoon’s scientific interests have focused on host-pathogen interactions with particular emphasis on the research- diagnostic interface of immunity to viral infections.

Current active areas of research include an understanding of immunity due to  vaccine or natural exposure for eg. immunity to mumps as mumps outbreaks continue to occur in highly vaccinated populations; monitoring of  immune responses to EBV and CMV in the immunosuppressed host employing paediatric kidney transplant recipients and adult liver transplant recipients as models; biomarkers for detection of recency in HIV infection. Jaythoon aims to translate these findings towards development and innovation of diagnostic assays to improve laboratory based algorithms. She works in close collaboration with colleagues in the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre; the Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street; St. Vincent’s University Hospital and Trinity College Dublin to facilitate these studies.