Claire Bergstrom Johnson, a DPhil Clarendon Scholar at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, has been awarded the highly prestigious 2025 Benson Research Fellowship by the GBS|CIDP Foundation International - one of the most competitive fellowships for early-career researchers in peripheral nerve research.
We spoke with Claire about the personal journey that inspired her to pursue this field, and how the three-year, $450,000 fellowship will support her ongoing work and future discoveries.
Claire, congratulations on being named a 2025 Benson Research Fellow. Can you tell us what led you to pursue a DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford?
Thank you! As a Clarendon Scholar completing my DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences, my path to Oxford was shaped by something deeply personal: my twin sister’s near-fatal experience with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), a rare and disabling autoimmune neuropathy. Watching her, since age 7, navigate delayed diagnoses and limited treatment options, inspired me to pursue a career in translational research, where every discovery has meaning far beyond the lab.
Your research at Oxford focuses on an especially rare subtype of autoimmune neuropathy. Can you tell us more about it?
Under the mentorship of Associate Professor Simon Rinaldi, Dr Alexander Davies, and Professor Sarosh Irani in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, my work has focused on pan-neurofascin autoimmune nodopathy (pan-NF AN) – a rare, often fatal subtype of autoimmune neuropathy that resists standard treatments. During my DPhil, we discovered of a novel class of IgM autoantibodies which is already transforming how patients are diagnosed and managed - offering hope for earlier intervention and reduced long-term disability and death.
How will the Benson Research Fellowship support your work going forward?
Being awarded the 2025 Benson Research Fellowship from GBS|CIDP Foundation International is a profound honour, and a major step toward establishing myself as an independent investigator. This three-year, $450,000 award will allow me to remain in Oxford and expand my research into the immunopathology of inflammatory neuropathies. I’ll be developing tools to better detect harmful autoantibodies and investigating the immune cells that produce them. In turn, this will help us better understand why some patients relapse and why others don’t respond to treatment. Importantly, the underlying B-cell biology of most inflammatory neuropathies has never been deeply explored, so our findings could also have broader relevance across autoimmune diseases. My aim is to move discoveries from bench to bedside, bringing lab insights into real-world impact for patients who are often overlooked in mainstream neurological research.
What shaped your scientific background before coming to Oxford?
Before starting my DPhil in 2021, I built a strong foundation in immunology and regenerative medicine through my undergraduate work at the University of Michigan, where I studied Graft-Versus-Host Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. I went on to conduct research in developmental neuroscience and stem cell biology at Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and later worked at Boston-based biotech start-ups PlateletBio and ElevateBio. These experiences shaped my translational perspective and continue to inform how I think about bridging science and therapeutic development. I remain actively engaged with Oxford’s vibrant entrepreneurial community and hope to further strengthen the department as a leader in clinically relevant autoimmune neurology research.
What does this fellowship represent for you, both personally and professionally?
This fellowship marks not just a continuation of my work, but also reflects a long-term commitment to transforming how we care for patients with autoimmune neuropathies, ensuring that discoveries made within our department lead to real, lasting benefit. For me, it’s a deeply personal mission—and one I’m incredibly grateful to pursue with the support of the Benson Fellowship.