Tessa Campbell

Tessa Campbell

Biträdande Lektor

Investigating human NK cell proliferative homeostasis and plasmacytoid dendritic cell function in aging and inborn errors of immunity.

E-postadress: tessa.campbell@ki.se
Besöksadress: NEO Medicinaren 25, HERM plan 7, Hälsovägen 7C (lastkaj), 14157 Huddinge/Stockholm
Postadress: H7 Medicin, Huddinge, H7 HERM Bryceson, 171 77 Stockholm
Del av:

Forskningsbeskrivning

  • Throughout her research career Tessa has followed a curiosity for NK cell immunology in the context of parasite infection (during an undergraduate exchange at Karolinska Institutet), herpesvirus pathogenesis (in her PhD at the University of Sydney with Allison Abendroth), and immunodeficiency (in her postdoc at Karolinska Institutet with Yenan Bryceson). Like many scientists, she picked up a side project during the COVID-19 pandemic which has expanded her research interests to the antiviral type I IFN properties of plasmacytoid dendritic cells. Her research is currently supported by the Swedish Research Council, Åke Wiberg’s Foundation and Jeansson’s Foundation, and she was the recipient of the Jonas Söderquist Foundation Prize in Virology & Immunology in 2023. Tessa is a passionate science communicator, university educator, mentor and scientific presenter. Her lab’s research program aims to understand the proliferative and functional homeostasis of innate immune cells to harness their potential in viral disease and aging.

Undervisning

  • Tessa has been involved as a course lecturer, tutorial leader, and laboratory mentor at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Sydney. Her teaching profile covers bachelor, master's, and medical program courses on immunology, virology, and human biology.

    Science communication
    Tessa is an active science communicator in person and online on Twitter/X (@ScientistTess). In 2022 she was recognised as the Top Influencer at the meeting of The European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID2022) and was awarded free registration for the next society meeting. Tessa has also previously won the People's Choice Award (2018) for her Day of Immunology public engagement, presenting ‘NK cells: Ninjas of the immune system’. Since 2019 she has been involved in the Skype A Scientist program, skyping classrooms around the world to discuss science, as well as invitations to speak in person at several high school career and science events.

Artiklar

Alla övriga publikationer

Forskningsbidrag

  • Deciphering respiratory virus susceptibility in aging through the lens of inborn errors of immunity
    Jeanssons Stiftelse
    30 April 2026 - 30 April 2027
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2026 - 31 December 2029
    Respiratory viruses pose a significant threat to human health. Despite widespread awareness, it remains unclear why older individuals are disproportionately at risk for severe respiratory viral disease. My recent publications on patients with genetic inborn errors of immunity revealed that severe—sometimes fatal—respiratory viral infections manifest when the antiviral type I interferon (IFN-I) cytokine pathway is impaired. Strikingly, the disease vulnerability in IFN-I deficiency closely parallels the viral susceptibility associated with aging. My background uniquely positions me to use the lens of IFN-I deficiency to distil the key immunological networks causing age-related respiratory virus severity. Over four years, my team with clinical collaborators will investigate the hypothesis that impairment of IFN-I determines the severity of respiratory viral infection in aging. We will interrogate IFN-I responses in aging to an unprecedented depth by leveraging my expertise in multiparameter flow cytometry assays with cutting-edge single-cell transcriptomic analysis and metabolic profiling. Analyses will focus on plasmacytoid dendritic cells which are paradoxically rare, yet the major source of IFN-I during viral infection. By establishing the pathways that control and impair IFN-I we will explore avenues for rescuing its function. Ultimately, my research will provide new understanding and directions for treatment and prevention of severe respiratory viral infections in aging.
  • Deciphering respiratory virus susceptibility in aging through the lens of inborn errors of immunity
    Åke Wibergs Stiftelse
    1 January 2026 - 1 January 2027
  • Kartläggning av allvarliga infektionskänslighet för respiratoriska virus vid åldrande
    Loo och Hans Ostermans stiftelse för medicinsk forskning
    30 June 2024 - 30 June 2025
  • Karolinska Institutet
    9 November 2023
  • Deciphering viral infection susceptibility in people living with obesity
    Clas Groschinskys Minnesfonds
    21 September 2023 - 21 September 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2026
    Pediatric hyperinflammatory syndromes represent a heterogenous group of life-threatening disorders associated with impaired immunity and excessive inflammation. A majority of patients lack a molecular diagnosis and treatments of these conditions are not standardized. There is a critical need for personalized medicine. Building on advanced clinical pipelines and unique patient samples, the specific aims of our proposal are to (1) establish systematic, longitudinal sampling and analyses of pediatric patients with suspected primary immunodeficiency disease (PID), (2) establish systems to evaluate protein-coding variants of unknown significance in genes associated with the most severe PID, (3) identify new PIDs through cutting-edge functional genomic analyses, and (4) determine and understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of novel hyperinflammatory disorders with poor clinical outcome. Our innovative approach combines unique patient material with advanced bioinformatic algorithms and cellular methodology. This proposal is supported by the pioneering translational immunological expertise of the lead investigator and will benefit from a worldwide network of collaborators. Ultimately, we will identify novel molecular causes of hyperinflammatory syndromes which can facilitate personalized medicine. It will also provide proof-of-concept methodology that can be employed in the diagnostics of other unexplained patients with suspected monogenic disease.
  • Svenska Sällskapet för Medicinsk Forskning
    1 January 2022 - 1 January 2025

Anställningar

  • Biträdande Lektor, Medicin, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, 2025-2031
  • Postdoktor, Medicin, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, 2021-2025

Examina och utbildning

  • PhD, Medicine, Thesis: On interactions between alphaherpesviruses and natural killer cells, University of Sydney, 2019
  • Bachelor of Science (Honours class I), Immunobiology and microbiology, Thesis: Regulation of natural killer cell ligands and activity by varicella zoster virus & herpes simplex virus type 1, University of Sydney, 2013

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