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Mark Hampton imagePrincipal Investigator

PhD (Otago) MSc(Hons) (Canterbury)

Email mark.hampton@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 372 6770

Mark Hampton is a professor at the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine on the University of Otago, Christchurch campus, and director of Mātai Hāora – Centre for Redox Biology and Medicine .

He completed his undergraduate and PhD studies in New Zealand before taking up postdoctoral positions at the Karolinksa Institute in Sweden and Harvard in the USA. He subsequently returned to the University of Otago where he was promoted to a professorial role in 2013.

Research interests

Oxidants (also called reactive oxygen species or free radicals) are continuously generated in our body, and we rely on sophisticated antioxidant systems to prevent them from causing damage. However, oxidants also have beneficial roles. They can act as signalling molecules that regulate a number of life and death pathways in cells. Oxidants are also generated by the immune system to destroy microbes. Prof Hampton's research is focused on understanding how cells sense and respond to oxidants, and how these pathways might be modulated to prevent and treat human disease.

Professor Hampton's current projects include investigations of how disruption of redox homeostasis can promote the killing of cancer cells and pathogenic microbes, and how oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction are associated with the biological processes underlying human ageing.

Publications

Young, E., Bull, D., Hampton, M., Walker, L., & Wiggins, G. (2026, February). SULT1A1 inhibition and the prevention of BRCA1-associated breast cancer. Verbal presentation at the Genetics Otago (GO) Annual Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Wang, X., Jowsey, W. J., Cheung, C.-Y., Dickerhof, N., Taka, J. R. H., Hampton, M. B., … Gardner, P., Fineran, P. C., Cook, G. M., Jackson, S. A., & McNeil, M. B. (2026, February). Genetic vulnerabilities in rifampicin resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis [Invited]. Verbal presentation at the Genetics Otago (GO) Annual Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Brook, E. M., Helem, S. J., McDonald, C. C. M., Magon, N. J., Selwood, A. I., Harwood, D. T., … Hampton, M. B., & Dachs, G. U. (2025). Portimine A maintains bioactivity following exposure to liver microsomes and cell lysates: No evidence for significant metabolic inactivation. Medical Oncology, 42, 278. doi: 10.1007/s12032-025-02826-x Journal - Research Article

King-Hudson, T.-R. J., Pearson, A. G., Dunstan-Harrison, C., Powell, M. T., Magon, N. J., Edwards, T. S., Paton, L. N., … Kettle, A. J., Pearson, J. F., Kokaua, J., … Theodore, R., Ramrakha, S., Poulton, R., Moffitt, T. E., Ledgerwood, E. C., & Hampton, M. B. (2025). Biomarkers of oxidative and mitochondrial stress are associated with accelerated pace of aging at midlife in a birth cohort. Journals of Gerontology Series A, 80(7), glaf105. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glaf105 Journal - Research Article

Pace, P. E., Fu, L., Hampton, M. B., & Winterbourn, C. C. (2025). Redox proteomic analysis of H2O2 -treated Jurkat cells and effects of bicarbonate and knockout of peroxiredoxins 1 and 2. Free Radical Biology & Medicine, 227, 221-232. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2024.10.314 Journal - Research Article

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