Professor Saiju Jacob MBBS, MD, DPhil (Oxon), FRCP (Lon)

Saiju Jacob

Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy
Honorary Professor (Neuroimmunology)
Consultant Neurologist

Contact details

Email
s.jacob@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@JacobSaiju
Address
Immunology and Immunotherapy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Saiju Jacob is a Consultant Neurologist with a special interest in Neuroimmunology. He does general neurology, myasthenia and neuroimmunology clinics at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (UHB). He maintains an active clinical and research interest in all aspects of peripheral and central neuroimmunology including myasthenia gravis, autoimmune encephalitis, neuromyelitis optica, stiff person syndrome, susac disease, cns vasculitis, paraneoplastic syndromes and other autoimmune neurological disorders.

Qualifications

  • FRCP, Royal College of Physicians, London 2015
  • DPhil in Clinical Neurology, University of Oxford 2010
  • MRCP (UK), Royal College of Physicians, London 2002
  • MD (General Medicine), 2001
  • MBBS, 1997

Biography

Saiju Jacob is a Consultant Neurologist at the University Hospitals Birmingham and was the Clinical Service Lead from 2013 to 2021. He did his Neurology training in London (Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, St. George’s), Coventry, Leicester, Oxford (DPhil) and Birmingham. His research was under the guidance of Prof Angela Vincent at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, looking into seronegative myasthenia gravis and the role of complement in autoimmune neurological disorders.

His main clinical interest is in the field of central and peripheral neuroimmunology and has undertaken several clinical trials and studies in this field.

Saiju is the Training Programme Director for Neurology at the Health Education England, West Midlands and is actively involved in postgraduate education. He is also the Neurology lead for the Regional NIHR Clinical Research Network and Deputy Lead for Division for West Midlands NIHR CRN.

Saiju is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Birmingham and is the clinical lead for the neuroimmunology laboratory services. He maintains an active teaching portfolio for both undergraduates and postgraduates, nationally and internationally.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

  • Neurology Specialty Trainees
  • International Training Fellows
  • Clinical Research Fellows

Research

Research Interests

  • Central and Peripheral Neuroimmunology

Current Projects

Clinical Trials

  • UK Chief Investigator and PI  for Myasthenia Clinical Trials
    • Momenta pharmaceuticals
    • ArgenX pharmaceuticals
    • UCB/Parexel pharmaceuticals
    • Alexion pharmaceuticals
  • PI – Dex Enceph Trial (University of Liverpool)
  • PI – Enceph-Ig Trial (University of Liverpool)

Clinical Projects

  • Psychiatric manifestations in NMDAR autoimmune encephalitis
  • LGI1 and Caspr2 autoimmune encephalitis and prognostic markers
  • Seizure profiles in autoimmune encephalitis
  • Combined EEG and fMRI in NMDAR encephalitis
  • Stiff Person Syndrome clinical scoring system development
  • Susac’s syndrome – wider Midlands consortium
  • Bickerstaff’s Brain stem encephalitis and GQ1b syndromes
  • Movement disorders in Caspr2 antibodies
  • Myasthenia Gravis database and national guidelines review
  • Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus – role of CSF diversion
  • Use of Rituximab in Myasthenia Gravis
  • Review of the role of thymectomy in Myasthenia Gravis
  • Resource utilisation in Myasthenia – using GP database review

Laboratory Projects

  • Antigen-specific immunotherapy in Myasthenia (with Prof David Wraith)

Other activities

In addition to his clinical and academic roles, Saiju is also a Board member of the Myasthenia Gravis national patient charity, Myaware and is one of the two neurologists in the medical committee.

Publications

Bose, S., Thompson, J.T., Sadalage, G., Karim, A., Jacob, S. (2021), Quantitative assessment of resonse to long term treatment with IVIG in patients with Stiff Person Syndrome. Mov Disord Clin Pract, https://doi.org/20/1002/mdc3.13261.

Jacob, S. (2021),. Guillain Barré syndrome. BMJ Best Practice Apr (Review article). https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-gb/176

Muppidi S, Guptill JT, Jacob S, Li Y, Farrugia ME, Guidon AC, Tavee JO,Kaminski H, Howard JF Jr, Cutter G, Wiendl H, Maas MB, Illa I, Mantegazza R, Murai H, Utsugisawa K, Nowak RJ; CARE-MG Study Group. (2020), COVID-19-associated risks and effects in myasthenia gravis (CARE-MG). Lancet Neurol. 2020 Dec;19(12):970-971. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(20)30413-0. PMID: 33212055; PMCID: PMC7837033.

Sawlani V, Patel MD, Davies N, Flintham R, Wesolowski R, Ughratdar I, Pohl U, Nagaraju S, Petrik V, Kay A, Jacob S, Sanghera P, Wykes V, Watts C, Poptani H. (2020), Multiparametric MRI: practical approach and pictorial review of a useful tool in the evaluation of brain tumours and tumour-like lesions. (2020), Insights Imaging. Jul 17;11(1):84. doi: 10.1186/s13244-020-00888-1. PMID: 32681296; PMCID: PMC7367972.

Sawlani, V. Scotton, S., Nader, K.,  Jen, J.P., Patel, M.,  Gokani, K.,  Denno, P., Thaller, M., Englezou, C., Janjua, U., Bowen, B.,  Hoskote, C., Veenith, T., Hassan-Smith, G., Jacob, S. (2020), COVID-19 related intracranial imaging findings: a large single-centre experience. Clin Radiol  76(2):108-116.

Jacob S, Murai H, Utsugisawa K, Nowak RJ, Wiendl H, Fujita KP, O'Brien F, Howard JF Jr. (2020), Response to eculizumab in patients with myasthenia gravis recently treated with chronic IVIg: a subgroup analysis of REGAIN and its open-label extension study. Ther Adv Neurol Disord. 2020 May 6;13:1756286420911784. doi: 10.1177/1756286420911784. PMID: 32426038; PMCID: PMC7222230.

International MG/COVID-19 Working Group, Jacob S, Muppidi S, Guidon A, Guptill J, Hehir M, Howard JF Jr, Illa I, Mantegazza R, Murai H, Utsugisawa K, Vissing J, Wiendl H, Nowak RJ. (2020), Guidance for the management of myasthenia gravis (MG) and Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Neurol Sci. 2020 May 15;412:116803. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2020.116803. Epub 2020 Mar 25. PMID: 32247193; PMCID: PMC7105910.

Vissing J, Jacob S, Fujita KP, O'Brien F, Howard JF; REGAIN study group. (2020), 'Minimal symptom expression' in patients with acetylcholine receptor antibody- positive refractory generalized myasthenia gravis treated with eculizumab. J Neurol. 2020 Jul;267(7):1991-2001. doi: 10.1007/s00415-020-09770-y. Epub 2020 Mar 18. PMID: 32189108; PMCID: PMC7320935.

Miller TD, Chong TT, Aimola Davies AM, Johnson MR, Irani SR, Husain M, Ng TW, Jacob S, Maddison P, Kennard C, Gowland PA, Rosenthal CR. (2020), Human hippocampal CA3 damage disrupts both recent and remote episodic memories. Elife. 2020 Jan 24;9:e41836. doi: 10.7554/eLife.41836. PMID: 31976861; PMCID: PMC6980860.

Jacob, S.,Vincent, A. (2020) Autoimmune Encephalitis, Emergencies in Neurology 2020 Vol II. ISBN 978-981-13-7379-4.

Jacob S. (2019),  Primary angiitis of the central nervous system (PACNS) - a rare and serious, but treatable entity. Neurol India. 2019 May-Jun;67(3):942-944. doi: 10.4103/0028-3886.263180. PMID: 31347602.

Bose S, Jacob S. (2019), Restless leg syndrome in patients with liver cirrhosis: Waiting for the shoe to drop. Neurol India. 2019 May-Jun;67(3):657-659. doi: 10.4103/0028-3886.263218. PMID: 31347527.

Maddison P, Sadalage G, Ambrose PA, Jacob S, Vincent A. (2019), False-positive acetylcholine receptor antibody results in patients without myasthenia gravis. J Neuroimmunol. 2019 Jul 15;332:69-72. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2019.04.001. Epub 2019 Apr 3. PMID: 30959340.

Harris L, Graham S, MacLachlan S, Exuzides A, Jacob S. (2019), Healthcare resource utilization by patients with treatment-refractory myasthenia gravis in England. J Med Econ. 2019 Jul;22(7):691-697. doi: 10.1080/13696998.2019.1592180.

Scotton WJ, Karim A, Jacob S. (2019), Glutamate Receptor Antibodies in Autoimmune Central Nervous System Disease: Basic Mechanisms, Clinical Features, and Antibody Detection. Methods Mol Biol. 2019;1941:225-255. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9077-1_15. PMID: 30707437.