Translational Complement Research

Research Focus

• The role of CD46 in human Th1 induction and contraction (DNA packaging, gene expression, regulation of cell metabolism)
• The role of the intracellular ‘C5 system’ in sterile inflammation 
• The role of the intracellular ‘C3 system’ in lineage development 
• The role of the intracellular ‘C3 system’ in trained immunity 
• The role of the intracellular ‘C3 system’ in cancer 

Scientific career // Education and Scientific Training

Since 2017

Senior Investigator, Section Chief, Laboratory of Complement and Inflammation 

Research, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology (LMI), Immunology Center, DIR, NHLBI, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA 

Adjunct Professor of Translational Complement Research at the University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

Visiting Professor of Innate Immunity, DTIMB, King’s College London, UK

Since 2015-2016

(Full) Professor of Innate Immunology, Division of Transplant Immunology 

and Mucosal Biology (DTIMB), King’s College London, UK

2014-2015

Visiting Scientist at the National Institutes of Health, NHLBI, Bethesda, MD, USA, in the laboratory of Prof. Warren Leonard 

2012-2015

Reader in Transplant Immunology (permanent/tenured position), MRC Centre for Transplantation, King’s College London (HEFCE), UK

2008-2012

Senior Lecturer in Transplant Immunology, MRC Centre for Transplantation, King’s College London, UK

2006-2008

Research Assistant Professor, Washington University, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Saint Louis, MO, USA

2004-2006

Instructor in Medicine, Washington University, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Saint Louis, MO, USA

1999-2003

Postdoctoral fellow (with Prof. John P. Atkinson), Washington University, Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA

1994-1998

PhD (immunology), Bernhardt-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Med., University of Hamburg, Germany

Memberships

• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immunologie (DGfI)
• International Complement Society
• American Association of Immunologists (AAI)
• British Society for Immunology (BSI)

Miscellaneous

2008-2016

Elected board member of the International Complement Society (ICS)

2010-2016

King’s College London, MSc Programme in Immunology Committee member and module leader 

2011-2013

Head ‘Complement Nomenclature Committee

2011 

Associate Editor ‘Frontiers in Molecular Innate Immunology’

2012-2016

KCL Postgraduate Programme (Board member)

2012-2016

Senior Head Editor ‘Frontiers in Molecular Innate Immunology’ 

2013-2016

ICS Secretary 

2013-2016

King’s Bioscience Institute (Strategy Group Board member)

2015-2017

Senior Editor ‘Molecular Immunology’

2015-date

Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Crestwood, KY, USA 

2016-2019

Wellcome Trust Expert Review Group ‘Immune System in Health and Disease’ member (Investigator Awards and Sir Henry Dale/Basic/Clinical Fellowships)

2017-date

Arthritis Research UK (ARUK) grant review panel member

2017-date

European Union/European Research Council, grant review panel member, ERC grants

2018

Scientific Review Board member of the ‘Helmholtz Association of German research Centers’ for the evaluation of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)

Awards

Trainee Award – DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), Bonn, Germany (1999-2001)

American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Huang Foundation Trainee Achievement Award (2003)

International Complement Society (ICS) Excellence in Complement Research Merit Award (2014) 

Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (2014)

Orloff Science Award of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA (2016)

Present Funding

These ongoing grants were in part returned  (residual portion) and in part retained (based on NIH policy) from February 2017 on when I joined the NIH:

2017 – open end

The non-canonical roles of (intracellular) complement in normal cell physiology in health and disease. NIH Intramural Research Programme. $1.1 Mio/year. 

2018-2021

British Heart Foundation Project Grant (PG/17/51/32950). Novel pathways involving ANCA and monocytes in ANCA vasculitis. Michael Robson (KCL) and Claudia Kemper. 

Role: Co-PI. £480.000. Retained

2016-2019

MRC Clinical Fellowship for Dr. Harriet Douthwaite. Can differences in TH1 IFN-γ to IL-10 cytokine switching mediated by CD46 predict functional outcome after renal transplantation? Harriet Douthwaite, Anthony Dorling, Claudia Kemper. £260.000

Role: Co-PI/Co-Supervisor Retained 

2014-2019

Wellcome Trust New Investigator Award. The role of complement receptors in Th1 immunity. C.Kemper. £1.51 Mio. Returned

Role: PI