Margaret Sällberg Chen

Professor of Clinical Oral Immunology | Director of Doctoral Studies | Chair, KID Steering Group | Faculty Representative, Research Education Committee at Karolinska Institutet.

Margaret Sällberg Chen earned her D.D.S. and Ph.D. from Karolinska Institutet. She pursued postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, USA, where she worked on developing T cell receptor transgene models for studying infection and cancer. She then joined the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control as staff scientist to focus on development of experimental vaccines and infection immunology.

In 2020, she became a full professor at Karolinska Institutet. She has published over 90 scientific articles, cited more than 4000 times, and is actively involved in various scientific and editorial boards. She is chair of the KID steering group since 2024. Margaret also leads a research group and is Director Doctoral Studies at the Department of Laboratory Medicine.

The lab is broadly interested in immunological mechanisms effective in eliminating microbial pathogens associated with chronic diseases and tumors. The research pursues several lines investigating cellular functions capable of sensing and killing intracellular pathogens and tumors, and the target identification. The models are exclusively human infectious diseases and the methodologies employed include synthetic genetics, genetically modified cells and animals, viral and non-viral vectors, and next generation sequencing.

Major research area: infection and cancer immunity, redirection of lymphocytes, T cell receptors, viral and neo-antigens, human microbiome and immune cell interactions, therapeutic targets in oral diseases including tumors and endodontic infections.

Group members

Dr. Michal Sobkowiak, Research specialist, Dr Sobkowiak holds a PhD in mucosal immunology

Dr. Pooja Tajpara, Postdoc, Dr. Tajpara holds a Master in Biotechnology and a PhD in human tissue immunology.

Dr. Mahin Ghorbani, Postdoc, Dr Ghorbani has a PhD in metatranscriptome analysis of gut microbiome and biomarker discovery.

Dr. Zara Ahmad Khan, Postdoc, Dr Khan holds a PhD in human microbiota and microbial proteomics.

PhD students: Rahul Harshad Nagadia (DDS, MD, Specialist in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery), Khaled Al-Manei (DDS, MSc Specialist in Endodontics), Agne Kvedaraite (DDS, FTV Region Stockholm). Affiliated research student: Choon Boon Too (Singapore NTU).

Co-supervisor to PhD student: Ira Sotirova (Umeå University, Region Västerbotten)