Staff Profile

Dr Jing Xuan Lim is a Research Associate in the Immune Regulation Laboratory. Her research focuses on the role of regulatory T cells in innate immune regulation within inflammatory diseases, including psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, as well as within the melanoma tumour microenvironment.

In July 2021, she graduated with a First Class Honours BSc in Biomedical Sciences from Newcastle University, receiving the NUMed Prize in Stages 1 and 3 for achieving the highest overall marks, as well as the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for academic excellence.

In June 2025, she completed her PhD, passing with no corrections at the Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University. Her doctoral research was supported by the NC3Rs PhD Studentship and the Newcastle University Overseas Research Scholarship (NUORS), and was further recognised with the Doctoral College Thesis Prize for outstanding academic research achievement. During her PhD, she identified a novel innate lymphoid cell (ILC) subset characterised by T-bet⁺NK1.1⁻ cells that respond to anti-PD-1 therapy in cancer (PNAS, 2023). In parallel, she discovered that melanoma anti-PD-1 resistance could be driven by CD30⁺ regulatory T cells (Tregs), suggesting a new therapeutic strategy for resistant melanoma patient cohorts (Nature Immunology, 2025).

My research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of immune regulation in inflammatory diseases and cancer. In particular, I investigate how regulatory T cells (Tregs) interact with innate immune cells to modulate immune responses in psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and the melanoma tumour microenvironment.

I employ a combination of immunological, molecular, spatial biology, and bioinformatics approaches to dissect cellular and molecular pathways that drive disease progression and immune dysfunction. My work includes the analysis of high-dimensional and spatial omics datasets, with a particular interest in uncovering cellular interactions within complex tissue microenvironments.

A key area of my research has been the development and application of spatial transcriptomics approaches in cancer immunology. I led the analysis and publication of a pioneering murine melanoma spatial transcriptomics dataset generated using the NanoString CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager platform (Nature Immunology, 2025), establishing analytical workflows and generating a valuable resource for studying tumour-immune interactions at single-cell resolution. Through the integration of experimental and computational approaches, my research aims to uncover novel mechanisms of immune regulation and identify potential therapeutic targets for inflammatory diseases and cancer.

I co-supervise undergraduate, Master's, and PhD students with Professor Shoba Amarnath, providing guidance in experimental design, laboratory techniques and computational analysis.

• Articles

  • Lim JX, McTaggart T, Jung SK, Smith KJ, Hulme G, Laba S, Ng YQ, Williams A, Hussain R, Coxhead J, Cosgarea I, Arden C, Nsengimana J, Lovat P, Anderson G, Sun H-W, Laurence A, Amarnath S. PD-1 receptor deficiency enhances CD30⁺ T_reg cell function in melanoma. Nature Immunology 2025, 26, 1074-1086.
  • McTaggart T, Lim JX, Smith KJ, Heaney B, McDonald D, Hulme G, Hussain R, Coxhead J, Degnan AE, Isaacs J, Pratt A, Amarnath S. Deep phenotyping of T regulatory cells in psoriatic arthritis highlights targetable mechanisms of disease. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2025, 301(1), 108059.
  • McTaggart T, Lim JX, Smith KJ, Heaney B, McDonald D, Hulme G, Hussain R, Coxhead J, Mann DA, Sayer AA, Granic A, Amarnath S. Deciphering Novel Communication Patterns in T Regulatory Cells From Very Old Adults. Aging Cell 2025, 24(7), e70044.
  • Lim JX, Lai CY, Mallett GE, McDonald D, Hulme G, Laba S, Shapanis A, Payne M, Patterson W, Alexander M, Coxhead J, Filby A, Plummer R, Lovat PE, Sciume G, Healy E, Amarnath S. Programmed cell death-1 receptor-mediated regulation of Tbet⁺NK1.1^- innate lymphoid cells within the tumor microenvironment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2023, 120(18), e2216587120.