Deborah Dunn-Walters

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Deborah Dunn-Walters
Born1963 (age 61–62)
Alma mater University of Surrey
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Surrey
King's College London
Thesis Studies on the human glutathione peroxidase gene and related DNA sequences  (1990)

Deborah Kay Dunn-Walters FRSB FMedSci (born September 1963[ citation needed ]) is a British immunologist who is Professor of Immunology and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at the University of Surrey. Her research considers B-cell development in healthy ageing and in disease, particularly from the viewpoint of antibody repertoires. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dunn-Walters focussed on mapping responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection [1] and the development of single cell analyses of the immunological responses to a COVID-19 vaccine. She was a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, and provided the government with scientific advice during the pandemic.

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Early life and education

Dunn-Walters was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire and grew up in Cottingley, Bradford. Dunn-Walters worked toward her doctorate at the University of Surrey. Her doctoral research considered the glutathione peroxidase gene. [2] After a brief period working with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund on breast cancer she moved into the study of Immunology. She has worked at University College London, King's College London and University of Surrey.

Research and career

Dunn-Walters has over a hundred primary research publications [3] . She studies B cell development in disease, and how the immune system changes during ageing. [4] She has developed new characterisation techniques to understand immune responses, including single-cell [5] and repertoire [6] approaches. She discovered IgM memory B cells in the spleen, [7] that the older immune system has a less diverse repertoire of B cells, [8] that there are at least 10 different types of B cells, [9] that different types of B cells may have different repertoires and therefore be responding to different stimuli. [6] [10] She works in collaboration with computer scientists and together they have produced online tools for repertoire analysis. [11] More recently, the development of new tools for distinguishing between productive and sterile transcripts of Ig constant region genes in B cells has shown that B cells become primed for Immunoglobulin class switching in a stage before they actually switch. [12] She is part of the CARINA (Catalyst Reducing Immune Ageing) Network, [13] a collective which looks to understand how ageing impacts the immune system and vice versa. [14]

Dunn-Walters has served on grants awarding and strategy committees for funding bodies such as the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) MRC and BBSRC, Research Council of Norway, Fondazione Cariplo Italy. She is a member of the British Society for Research on Ageing where she has previously served on the board and as Programme Secretary. She is also a member and elected Trustee for the British Society for Immunology where she chairs their Immunology Taskforce. She also serves as Chair Trustee for the Vivensa Foundation.

Dunn-Walters is currently the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dunn-Walters served as a scientific advisor to the Government of the United Kingdom. She was a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), and Chair of the British Society for Immunology COVID-19 Taskforce. [15] Dunn-Walters recommended all who were able to have the COVID-19 vaccine. [15]

She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2025. [16]

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ Stewart, Alexander; Sinclair, Emma; Ng, Joseph Chi-Fung; O’Hare, Joselli Silva; Page, Audrey; Serangeli, Ilaria; Margreitter, Christian; Orsenigo, Federica; Longman, Katherine; Frampas, Cecile; Costa, Catia; Lewis, Holly-May; Kasar, Nora; Wu, Bryan; Kipling, David (2022). "Pandemic, Epidemic, Endemic: B Cell Repertoire Analysis Reveals Unique Anti-Viral Responses to SARS-CoV-2, Ebola and Respiratory Syncytial Virus". Frontiers in Immunology. 13. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.807104 . ISSN   1664-3224. PMC   9111746 . PMID   35592326.
  2. ↑ "Studies on the human glutathione peroxidase gene and related DNA sequences | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  3. ↑ "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  4. ↑ "Prof Deborah Dunn-Walters | University of Surrey". www.surrey.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  5. ↑ Stewart, Alexander; Ng, Joseph Chi-Fung; Wallis, Gillian; Tsioligka, Vasiliki; Fraternali, Franca; Dunn-Walters, Deborah K. (2021). "Single-Cell Transcriptomic Analyses Define Distinct Peripheral B Cell Subsets and Discrete Development Pathways". Frontiers in Immunology. 12. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.602539 . ISSN   1664-3224. PMC   8012727 . PMID   33815362.
  6. 1 2 Wu, Yu-Chang; Kipling, David; Leong, Hui Sun; Martin, Victoria; Ademokun, Alexander A.; Dunn-Walters, Deborah K. (19 August 2010). "High-throughput immunoglobulin repertoire analysis distinguishes between human IgM memory and switched memory B-cell populations". Blood. 116 (7): 1070–1078. doi:10.1182/blood-2010-03-275859. ISSN   0006-4971. PMC   2938129 . PMID   20457872.
  7. ↑ Dunn-Walters, D. K.; Isaacson, P. G.; Spencer, J. (1 August 1995). "Analysis of mutations in immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region genes of microdissected marginal zone (MGZ) B cells suggests that the MGZ of human spleen is a reservoir of memory B cells". The Journal of Experimental Medicine. 182 (2): 559–566. doi:10.1084/jem.182.2.559. ISSN   0022-1007. PMC   2192131 . PMID   7629512.
  8. ↑ Gibson, Kate L.; Wu, Yu-Chang; Barnett, Yvonne; Duggan, Orla; Vaughan, Robert; Kondeatis, Elli; Nilsson, Bengt-Olof; Wikby, Anders; Kipling, David; Dunn-Walters, Deborah K. (February 2009). "B-cell diversity decreases in old age and is correlated with poor health status". Aging Cell. 8 (1): 18–25. doi:10.1111/j.1474-9726.2008.00443.x. ISSN   1474-9718. PMC   2667647 . PMID   18986373.
  9. ↑ Stewart, Alexander; Ng, Joseph Chi-Fung; Wallis, Gillian; Tsioligka, Vasiliki; Fraternali, Franca; Dunn-Walters, Deborah K. (2021). "Single-Cell Transcriptomic Analyses Define Distinct Peripheral B Cell Subsets and Discrete Development Pathways". Frontiers in Immunology. 12. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.602539 . ISSN   1664-3224. PMC   8012727 . PMID   33815362.
  10. ↑ Wu, Yu-Chang Bryan; Kipling, David; Dunn-Walters, Deborah (2011). "The Relationship between CD27 Negative and Positive B Cell Populations in Human Peripheral Blood". Frontiers in Immunology. 2: 81. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2011.00081 . ISSN   1664-3224. PMC   3341955 . PMID   22566870.
  11. ↑ Margreitter, Christian; Lu, Hui-Chun; Townsend, Catherine; Stewart, Alexander; Dunn-Walters, Deborah K.; Fraternali, Franca (14 April 2018). "BRepertoire: a user-friendly web server for analysing antibody repertoire data". Nucleic Acids Research. 46 (W1): W264 –W270. doi:10.1093/nar/gky276. ISSN   0305-1048. PMC   6031031 . PMID   29668996.
  12. ↑ Ng, Joseph C. F.; Montamat Garcia, Guillem; Stewart, Alexander T.; Blair, Paul; Mauri, Claudia; Dunn-Walters, Deborah K.; Fraternali, Franca (6 November 2023). "sciCSR infers B cell state transition and predicts class-switch recombination dynamics using single-cell transcriptomic data". Nature Methods. 21 (5): 823–834. bioRxiv   10.1101/2023.02.02.526789 . doi: 10.1038/s41592-023-02060-1 . ISSN   1548-7091. PMC   11093741 . PMID   37932398. S2CID   256617391.
  13. ↑ "CARINA Network". British Society for Immunology. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  14. ↑ "New network to boost understanding of immune system and ageing | University of Surrey". www.surrey.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  15. 1 2 "expert reaction to JCVI advice on COVID-19 vaccines for the autumn booster programme | Science Media Centre" . Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  16. ↑ "Academy of Medical Sciences announces new Fellows for 2025". Academy of Medical Sciences. 22 May 2025. Retrieved 11 August 2025.
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