Kristina Persson

Kristina Persson serves as Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at Lund University, holding dual appointments in the Division of Clinical Chemistry and Pharmacology and Infect@LU. As Principal Investigator for the Malaria and Babesia research group, she leads investigations into parasite immunity mechanisms with clinical applications across Swedish and Ugandan populations.

Her parasitology research focuses on two major areas: (1) Malaria immunity development, where her team discovered atypical B-cell responses explaining delayed immunity acquisition through novel flow cytometry methods; (2) Babesia pathogenesis, examining tick-borne transmission dynamics in Sweden and developing antibody measurement techniques. Current projects investigate parasite red blood cell invasion mechanisms and functional antibody responses.

Recent publication trends reveal concentrated expertise in malaria immunology, with emphasis on immune evasion tactics, biomarker-parasitemia correlations, and vaccine-induced antibody decay. Her work bridges laboratory parasitology and clinical epidemiology through collaborations in Uganda and Sweden.

Persson actively mentors four named PhD candidates while managing a research team comprising two PhD students, one post-doctoral researcher, and two research engineers. Her group maintains parasite culture facilities for both malaria and babesia studies.

The laboratory operates advanced diagnostic platforms including flow cytometry systems for B-cell analysis and specialized methods for measuring Babesia antibodies, contributing directly to UN Sustainable Development Goals through tropical disease research.