Christos Karampelias is a biomedical researcher whose work focuses on diabetes, metabolism and pancreatic biology, with particular emphasis on how insulin-producing cells develop and regenerate. He completed his doctoral and postdoctoral training at Karolinska Institutet and later served as a Marie Curie Fellow and team leader in the Islet Biology group at Helmholtz Munich.
His research spans endocrinology, diabetology, metabolism and developmental biology, with publications in leading journals including Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Communications and EMBO Molecular Medicine.
Now newly recruited as a WCMM Lund Fellow, Christos is preparing to establish his research group focused on pancreatic disease and regeneration, with the long-term goal of advancing regenerative therapies for diabetes. We had a chat with him about what drew him to Lund and WCMM, the scientific questions driving his work and his vision for building a research program at the intersection of basic discovery and translational medicine.
| Welcome to the centre, you will be starting your WCMM Fellowship on September 1. What excites you most about moving to Lund and establishing your research group here?
- I am very happy and grateful for the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Faculty of Medicine for the opportunity to join the vibrant community at Lund university. Lund is a premier hub for biological research and I am particularly drawn to its collaborative and welcoming atmosphere.
I look forward to establishing my group within this ecosystem and engaging with the excellent researchers and programs already in place. I am also eager for the opportunity to get back to the university classroom and teach, something that I greatly enjoy.
| What factors influenced your decision to choose WCMM and Lund University for starting your group?
- My decision was driven by the exceptional alignment between my research aspirations and the multidisciplinary centers at Lund University. The presence of world-class environments such as the Lund Stem Cell Center, the Lund Diabetes Centre, and the Lund University Cancer Centre offers a unique infrastructure for high-impact collaboration.
Beyond the facilities, the culture of the WCMM was a deciding factor. During the interview process, I was struck by the openness and genuine scientific enthusiasm of the leadership and current fellows. The fact that we were already brainstorming potential collaborations before my appointment was even finalized is a testament to the proactive and inclusive community, I want to build this group within.
| Your research focuses on pancreatic disease and regeneration, including metabolism and developmental biology. Could you briefly outline the key questions driving your work?
- What has been my jam for a long time is trying to understand regenerative responses, how are they regulated, why certain species have more regenerative capacity compared to others and how we can advantage of this knowledge for regenerative medicine.
With this next step, I would like to continue working on this theme, focusing 1- on early pancreatic disease initiation (so called developmental origin of disease) 2- inter-organ communication during the pancreatic regenerative response and hopefully 3- make regenerative therapies safe for human applications. For example, in type 1 diabetes, the immune system kills the insulin producing cells of the pancreas continuously, so no regenerative therapy can succeed if we disregard the immune component of this equation. Modelling this interaction in a dish would be something that I think would be fun to do at Lund university.
| What initially drew you to science, and does that motivation still shape how you approach your work today?
- Unfortunately, I do not have a typical inspiring origin story to share with you. I grew up in a family of farmers in a village somewhere in North Greece, so I was always very close to nature and the fields. Naturally, it is very quiet in the village compared to cities, so I was always drawn to reading books and I got excited about physics and science early on. Biology came later into my reading playlist and I just decided it was more fun to study that.
The important thing for me was to always be in a position to learn something new and Science can do that to you. If I stop learning, I get restless, so I chose science to keep myself engaged and constantly curious—and that is something I still enjoy today.
| Your lab uses advanced approaches such as human organoid models, as well as single-cell and spatial technologies. How do these methods enable new insights into pancreatic biology?
- I believe that combining omics methodologies with human pancreatic organoid models allows us to recreate certain aspects of human physiology that are otherwise very challenging to study in the pancreas. If we want to move toward translational applications like disease therapies or diagnostics, using human systems is really the only way forward, which makes organoids an essential tool.
We are still working with very simplistic versions of organoid modeling, however, so I hope we can contribute to advancing these into more physiological 'organ-on-chip' platforms for regenerative medicine.
| What are the major challenges in your field right now and how do you aim to address them in your research?
- As I mentioned before, any regenerative therapy being tested—especially for Type 1 Diabetes—must take the immune system into account. Currently, patients have to remain under constant immunosuppression to achieve a regenerative response, which is far from ideal. The research community is collectively trying to clear this hurdle, and we hope to contribute by using our organoid models in co-culture with immune cells.
The second major challenge is ensuring these therapies are safe. For example, stem cell transplantation for cell replacement always carries an inherent risk of unwanted proliferation or carcinogenesis at the site. How can we guarantee the final product is safe? These are some of the most burning questions in the pancreatic regeneration field today.
| Translational research is a central part of WCMM Lund. How does your work connect to that, from underlying mechanisms to potential applications and what do you see as the key steps needed to move your findings closer to patient benefit?
- The design of the WCMM center addresses a vital need: bringing basic and clinical scientists together to spark collaborations that lead to successful clinical products. With our human pancreatic organoid models, we can help translate basic science concepts into human-relevant applications. At the same time, we can work directly with clinical scientists and the hospital to address the urgent questions they face in the clinic. I see this two-way exchange—using models that reflect human biology while listening to the needs of doctors and patients—as the key step to moving our findings closer to real-world benefits.
| As a new WCMM Lund Fellow, are there specific technologies, infrastructures or collaborators you are particularly interested in engaging with?
- There are honestly so many excellent facilities and talented researchers here that it’s difficult to single out just one or two at this stage! I am looking forward to my first few months in Lund to really explore the potential infrastructure and meet with potential collaborators across the different centers to see where our work can best intersect.
| Looking ahead, what would success look like for your research program in 5–10 years?
- Interesting question! I think for me success would be: whoever comes and joins this group of people can achieve their goals.
| More broadly, what motivates you as a researcher?
- I perhaps naively think you can fix what is wrong in the world with Science and Education so I hope that through research and teaching I can contribute something to this goal.
Thank you very mych Christos for taking your time and good luck with everything!
