Complement and Inflammation Research

The Laboratory for Complement and Inflammation Research, led by Dr. Claudia Kemper, aims to understand the unexpected roles of complement proteins in the regulation of key basic processes of the cell in health and disease.

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Claudia Kemper

Featured Publications

Intracellular complement activations sustains T cell homeostasis and mediates effector function.

Authors: Liszewski, MK, Kolev, M, Le Friec, G, Leung, M, Bertram, PG, Fara, A, Subias, M, Pickering, MP, Drouet, C, Meri, S, Arstilla, TP, Pekkarinen, Ma, M, Cope, A, Reinheckel, T, Rodriguez de Cordoba, S, Afzali, B, Atkinson, JP, and Kemper, C.
Immunity 2013 Jan 01;39(6):1143-1157
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Complement mediates nutrient influx and metabolic reprogramming in Th1 responses.

Authors: Kolev, M, Dimeloe, S, Le Friec, G, Arbore, G, Povoleri, GA, Fischer, M, Razik, L, Watson, J, Couzi, L, Afzali, B, Lavender, P, Hess, C, and Kemper, C.
Immunity 2015 Jan 01;42(6):1033-1047
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CD4+ T cell-intrinsic complement-NLRP3 inflammasome activity regulates IFN-g production

Authors: Arbore, G, West EE, Spolski, R, Robertson, AB, Klos, A, Rheinheimer, C, Dutow, P, Woodruff, TM, O'Neill, LA, Coll, RC, Sher, A, Leonard, WJ, Monk, P, Cooper, MA, Arno, M, Afzali, B, Lachmann, HJ, Cope, AP, Mayer-Barber, K, and Kemper, C.
Science 2016 Jan 01;17(352):6292
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Mitochondrial C5aR1 activity in macrophages controls IL-1β production underlying sterile inflammation.

Authors: Niyonzima, N, Rahman, J, Kunz, N, ... Espevik, T, and Kemper, C.
Sci Immunol 2021 Jan 01;6(66):
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Meet the Team

Claudia Kemper

Claudia Kemper, Ph.D.

Senior Investigator

Dr. Kemper is a Senior Investigator and Section Chief at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Kemper received her Ph.D. in 1998 from the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, in Germany, and joined John Atkinson’s laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University (Saint Louis) in 1999. Here, she discovered that the complement regulator CD46 is a key checkpoint in human Th1 induction. Dr. Kemper moved to King’s College London in 2008, where her group discovered the intracellularly active complement (the complosome) which serves non-canonical roles in cell biology, including the regulation of key metabolic pathways, mitochondrial dynamics, and gene transcription. Her group further showed that complosome perturbations are associated with a range of human diseases, including primary immune deficiency, and arthritic and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Kemper is the recipient of a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award, the Merit Award for Excellence in Science from the International Complement Society, two Orloff Awards in Science from the NHLBI/NIH. She is an elected member of the Henry Kunkel Society, serves on the Scientific Board of Apellis, Inc., is the current NHLBI representative of the Women Scientists Advisors (WSA), a current member of the American Association of Immunologists (AA) Committee on the Status of Women, the Head of Admission of the NIH-OXCAM Scholars Program, and the sitting President of the International Complement Society.

Nicolas Merles

Nicolas Merles, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
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Alumni

Martin Kolev, Ph.D.

Visiting Scientist
2017 - 2018
Martin Kolev, Ph.D. is currently a Associate Director at Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Boston, MS, USA.

Leo Placais

Clinical MSc Student
2018 - 2019
Leo Placais is currently a Clinical Student at Faculté de médecine Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Paris VI in Paris, France.

Nathalie Niyonzima

Research Fellow
2017 - 2019
Nathalie Niyonzima is currently a Research Fellow at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway.

Tilo Freiwald, M.D., Ph.D.

Visiting Fellow
2018 - 2022
Tilo Freiwald, M.D., Ph.D. is currently a Junior Clinical Group Leader at HCKH (Hamburg Center for Kidney Health, of the University Hospital Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany).

Luciana Negro Demontel, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
2021 - 2023
Luciana Negro Demontel, Ph.D. is currently a Senior Research Scientist at Drexel University School of Biomedical Engineering.

Daniel Seiler, Ph.D.

Ph.D. Student
Daniel Seiler, Ph.D. is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Lubeck, ISEF (Institute for systemic inflammatory research), Lubeck, Germany.

Stanley Odidika, Ph.D.

Ph.D. Student
Stanley Odidika, Ph.D. is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
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