Russell Jones is a leading expert in the study of metabolism and immunology. As professor and chair of the Department of Metabolism and Nutritional Programming at Van Andel Institute, his work seeks to uncover how cancer cells and immune cells fuel themselves through metabolic interactions, with the ultimate goal of developing innovative approaches for immunometabolic therapy.

He and his team investigate how cancer cells and immune cells adjust their metabolism in response to extracellular stimuli through signal transduction pathways and epigenetic mechanisms. His research with the Allen Institute and Dr. Yasmine Belkaid of the National Institutes of Health takes this work a step further investigating the impact of systemic pressures, such as infection or diet, as well as untangling the impact of the microbiome.

Jones earned his B.Sc. (biochemistry) and Ph.D. (medical biophysics) from the University of Toronto before completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Craig B. Thompson at University of Pennsylvania.