Beate Kampmann joined the MRC-The Gambia in July 2010 as the Head of the Vaccinology Theme. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, holds a Diploma in Tropical Medicine (DTM&H) and has a PhD in cellular immunology and childhood tuberculosis from Imperial College London.
Professional background: Professor Kampmann holds a Chair in Paediatric Infection & Immunity and trained as a clinician and scientist in Germany, France, UK, US and South Africa. She heads the activities under the infant immunology, tuberculosis and molecular diagnostics programs at the Unit. Her main task is to provide scientific leadership for the Vaccinology theme and to develop and implement new proposals for this theme, including the wider West-African context. She is the current chair of the Scientific Coordination Committee and a member of the leadership board of the Unit. In addition, she serves on international advisory committees in childhood infection and vaccine development, leads the ptbnet, a European consortium for childhood tuberculosis (www.ptbnet.org), and is director of the paediatric studies for the TB-CDRC (www.tbcdrc.org)
Research interests: The Kampmann lab has developed a strong international research program with a focus on translational research in childhood infection & immunity, in particular childhood tuberculosis +/- HIV infection. The members of the team are working in an “Open Lab” strategy across the Campus at Imperial College London (www.imperial.ac.uk/kampmann) and the MRC Unit-The Gambia. Previous work has also been conducted in collaborations with Red Cross Children’s Hospital and the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and additional ongoing collaborations extend to the USA and Europe.
Specific areas of research:
- Childhood tuberculosis
- pathophysiology of childhood TB
- new vaccines for TB
- development and validation of new diagnostic approaches for TB
- management of TB in low- versus high resource settings
- Functional and immunogenicity assays for assessments of vaccine responses
- Maternal influence on childhood vaccine responses
- Effect of pneumococcal vaccination in HIV-infected children
- B-and T-cell interactions
- Plasticity of immune responses in children and the effect of age
- Jones CE, Naidoo S, De Beer C, Esser M, Kampmann B and Hesseling AC Maternal HIV infection and antibody responses against vaccine-preventable diseases in uninfected infants. JAMA. 2011 Feb 9;305(6):576-84
- Tena-Coki NG, Scriba TJ, Peteni N, Eley B, Wilkinson RJ, Andersen P, Hanekom WA, Kampmann B CD4 and CD8 T Cell Responses to Mycobacterial Antigens in African Children. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2010 Jul 1;182(1):120-9
- Kampmann B; Whittaker E; Williams A; Walters S; Gordon A; Martinez-Alier N; Williams B; Crook AM; et al. Interferon-gamma release assays do not identify more children with active tuberculosis than the tuberculin skin test. Eur Respir J . 2009; 33:1374-1382.
- Newton SM, Brent AJ, Anderson S, Whittaker E, Kampmann B Paediatric Tuberculosis The Lancet Infectious Diseases, August 2008; Vol 8: 498-510
- Kampmann B, Tena G, Nicol M, Mzazi S, Levin M, Eley B In vitro evidence for reconstitution of antimycobacterial immunity in HIV-infected children on HAART AIDS 2006, 20:1011–1018
- Kampmann B, Hemingway C, Stephens A, Davidson R, Goodsall A, Anderson S, Nicol M, Scholvinck E, Relman D, Waddell S, Langford P, Sheehan B, Semple L, Wilkinson KA, Wilkinson RJ, Ress S, Hibberd M, Levin M.Acquired predisposition to mycobacterial disease due to autoantibodies to IFN-gamma. J Clin Invest. 2005 ;115(9):2480-248
