Dr Emma S Chambers, PhD

Profile

Emma Chambers graduated in Immunology with Study from the University of Bristol in 2008, where she spent a year at UCB in Slough. She subsequently undertook an MSc and PhD at King’s College London in Immunology. Her PhD was under the supervision of Prof. Catherine Hawrylowicz investigating the in vitro and in vivo immunomodulatory properties of Vitamin D particularly in severe asthma. Following her PhD, Emma was awarded an MRC Centenary Fellowship to continue her work on the mechanisms of steroid resistant severe adult asthma.

In March 2014 Emma started as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Arne Akbar at University College London where she investigated how cutaneous immunity changes with age. Emma’s project was a clinical study utilising either anti-inflammatory drug (p38-MAPKinase inhibitor; Chambers et al Nature Aging 2021) or Vitamin D (Chambers et al, Immunotherapy Advances 2021) to enhance immunity in older adults by blocking the phenomenon of inflammageing.

Emma joined the Centre for Immunobiology at the Blizard Institute in April 2020 where she set up her lab studying life-course immunology. The lab is currently funded by DEBRA UK and Barts Charity.

Teaching

Postgraduate

Module Co-Lead: ICM7141 Cell and Molecular Basis of Regeneration, MSc Regenerative Medicine

Personal tutor and project supervisor: MSc Regenerative Medicine and MSc Biomedical Science (Medical Microbiology)

Undergraduate

PBL Facilitator: Medicine

Research

Research Interests:

The aim of the lab to understand how immunity changes across the life-course by assessing the impact of increasing age or sex hormones on immune function and immunosenesence. My lab has a focus on barrier immunity (particularly the skin and lung) in health and disease, including diseases such as asthma and Junctional epidermolysis bullosa [JEB].

I am always interested in hearing from bright, motivated scientists who are interested in joining the team.

Staff

Current

Dr Justyna Sikora

Past

Dr Weigang Cai

Publications

Key Publications

S Sayegh, CH Fantecelle, P Laphanuwat, P Subramanian, MHA Rustin, DO Gomes, AN Akbar, ES Chambers#. Vitamin D3 inhibits p38 MAPK and senescence-associated inflammatory mediator secretion by senescent fibroblasts that enhances immune reactivity during ageing. Aging Cell (2024) https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.14093

ES Chambers#, W Cai, G Vivaldi, N Perdek, W Li, SE Faustini, JM Gibbons, C Pade, AG. Richter, AK Cousens, AR Martineau. Influence of age, sex, body habitus, vaccine type and prior infection on cellular and humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. NPJ Vaccines (2024) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-024-00878-0

DA Jolliffe, G Vivaldi, ES Chambers, W Cai, W Li, SE Faustini, JM Gibbons, C Pade, AK Coussens, AG Richter, Á McKnight, AR Martineau. Vitamin D Supplementation Does Not Influence SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Efficacy or Immunogenicity: Sub-Studies Nested within the CORONAVIT Randomised Con-trolled Trial. Nutrients (2022) 14(18):3821 https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14183821

ES Chambers, M Vukmanovic-Stejic, BB Shih, H Trahair, P Subramanian, OP Devine, J Glanville, D Gilroy, MHA Rustin, TC Freeman, NA Mabbott & AN Akbar. Recruitment of inflammatory monocytes by senescent fibroblasts inhibits antigen-specific tissue immunity during human aging. Nature Aging (2021) 1;101–113 https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-020-00010-6
 
ES Chambers, M Vukmanovic-Stejic, CT Turner, BB Shih, H Trahair, G Pollara, E Tsaliki, M Rustin, TC Freeman, NA Mabbott, M Noursadeghi, AR Martineau, AN Akbar. Vitamin D3 replacement enhances antigen-specific immunity in older adults. Immunotherapy Advances (2021) 1(1) Itaa008 https://doi.org/10.1093/immadv/ltaa008

RPH De Maeyer, ES Chambers. The impact of ageing on monocytes and macrophages. Immunology Letters (2021) 230:1-10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imlet.2020.12.003

All Publications

Supervision

PhD students

Shuwei Zhang –  Project titled: Utilising novel immune-responsive skin model to determine the source of cutaneous inflammation with increasing age

Cameron Ferguson –  Project titled: Dissecting The Role Of Inflammatory pathways In Junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB) Pathology – DEBRA UK funded