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

Margaret Sällberg Chen earned her D.D.S. and Ph.D. from ̽����ѡ. 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 ̽����ѡ. 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 student Rahul Harshad Nagadia, DDS, MD, Specialist Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, National Cancer Centre, Singapore

PhD student Khaled Al-Manei, DDS, MSc Specialist Endodontics

PhD student Agne Kvedaraite, DDS, FTV Region Stockholm

PhD student Bhuvaneswari Hariraman, DDS, National Cancer Centre, Singapore
PhD student Ira Sotirova, MD, Umeå University, Region Västerbotten (main supervisor Assoc Prof Roberto Valente)

Alumni

Tanja Näslund PhD 2009, Anna Pasetto PhD 2012, Haleh Davanian PhD 2014, Michal Sobkowiak PhD 2019. Hassan Alkharaan PhD 2021, Katie Healy PhD 2022, Zeeshan Ateeb PhD 2023, Asif Halimi PhD 2024, Liyan Lu PhD 2024.

Dr. Anila Yasmeen, Postdoc. Dr. Balasiddaiah Anangi, Postdoc. Dr Rogier Gaiser, Dr Haleh Davanian, Dr Giorgio Garbarini, Dr Sabrina Naud.

Research awards

Cancerfonden, Vetenskapsrådet, KI KID faculty funds, CIMED, Johnson & Johnson Innovation Award, KI/SLL SOF, ALF Stockholm, Radiumhemmets Forskningsfond, NBIS/SciLifeLab Bioinformatics Long-term Support