Professor Beate Kampmann

Beate Kampmann is Professor in Paediatric Infection & Immunity.

Her main areas of research are Paediatric Tuberculosis, including HIV-co-infection as well as age-related immune responses to infections and vaccination.

Since July 2010, she heads the Vaccinology theme at the MRC-The Gambia www.mrc.gm, where she leads the work under the platforms of tuberculosis, infant immunology and molecular diagnostics within the core goal of the unit to improve maternal & child health in West-Africa.

Vaccinology research unites the work in her laboratories at Imperial College and in The Gambia, establishing an “Open lab” approach.

Professor Kampmann’s research has a strong translational element and is facilitated by her close involvement with the clinical services for children with infectious diseases at Imperial NHS Healthcare Trust, where she is an active member of the paediatric consultant team.

Training background:

- Clinician-Scientist in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology

 (trained in Germany, UK, USA and South Africa)

- PhD in mycobacterial immunology 2000  

(Supervisors: Professors Douglas Young and Mike Levin at Imperial College)

During her PhD, she developed a novel functional in vitro assay (lux assay), employing reporter-gene tagged mycobacteria and whole human blood to measure cell-mediated immune responses. The lux assay has now been employed as a model to study the effects of anti-retroviral therapy on immune responses to mycobacteria in children with HIV, the effects of Vitamin D supplementation on mycobacterial survival, immunogenicity of BCG vaccine and to evaluate novel anti-TB vaccine candidates.

Research Focus of the Kampmann lab:

- Improving diagnosis and management of childhood tuberculosis in the UK and Europe

(multi-centre studies facilitated by NIHR/MCRN and ptbnet www.ptbnet.org)

- immune regulation in childhood TB (Dr E. Whittaker)

- Immune responses to vaccine antigens in children with HIV (Ms Tena-Coki)

- Mother/infant immune responses to mycobacteria and EPI vaccines (Dr C. Jones)

- interactions of T and B cells in HIV and pneumococcal vaccination (Dr A.Bamford)

- age-related, innate and acquired immune responses to vaccines (Dr S. Burl)

- Immunogenicity assays for novel vaccines requiring CMI

- development and clinical validation of biomarkers for tuberculosis in children

- training and capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa

Funding:

- NIHR- Senior Research Fellowship (awarded in 2009, only award in this category)

- Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow (2005-2009)

- Wellcome Trust Training Fellow (2000-2004)

- BRC Imperial College- Senior Investigator

- MRC- Theme leader for Vaccinology in the Gambia

- Centre for Respiratory Infection (CRI) Imperial College –Co-investigator

Her PhD students have attracted funding from the Wellcome Trust, NIHR, ESPID and the Thrasher Fund.

Main collaborators:

- Senior Researchers at the MRC-The Gambia- Drs M.Ota, M.Antonio, K.Flanagan

- Tuberculosis Clinical Diagnostic Research Consortium (TB-CDRC), Johns Hopkins University, USA (www.tbcdrc.org). Dr Kampmann is the director of paediatric studies for this NIH-funded consortium, which conducts studies to evaluate novel diagnostics for TB in endemic settings.

- Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM) at the University of Cape Town: Profs M.Nicol, H.Zar, W.Hanekom, R.Wilkinson

- Staaten Serum Institute Denmark: Profs. P. Andersen, M.Doherty

Other professional activities:

- Founder and Chair of the ptbnet, a collaborative research initiative for paediatric TB in Europe

- Member of the steering committee of the TBNET (www.TB-net.org)

- Board member of the Academic Paediatric Association of Great Britain and Ireland (APA GB&I)

- Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (FRCPCH)

- Member of the Academic Board of the RCPCH

-  Scientific advisor to the EDCTP  

- Scientific advisor to PENTA (Paediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS)

- Scientific advisor to the StopTB/WHO campaign.