I am a veterinary scientist with a focus on immune regulation in animals, particularly cattle. I work on capturing the type, magnitude, as well as duration of the inflammatory response to improve our understanding of immune regulation in these animals as well as designing and evaluating intervention strategies. My current research goal is to establish a reliable and standardized assay platform for the detection of meaningful inflammatory biomarkers in bovine biological samples. My long-term vision is for these assays to become validated as diagnostic tools that can be used to guide intervention strategies, reduce antimicrobial use, and promote wellbeing and productivity in cattle.

• PhD, Immunology Unit, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany 2009
• DVM, College for Veterinary Medicine, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany 2006

10/2022 – current, Senior Research Associate, Serology and Immunology, Animal Health Diagnostic Center, Department for Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

• Research Projects: Assessment of inflammation in dairy cows with the use of multiplex technology to identify inflammatory profiles associated with successful transition into lactation. Immune modulatory properties of bovine stem cell secreted biomolecules
• Service Work: Maintenance of the Serology reagent library. Development and evaluation of new bead-based multiplex assays for the quantification of bovine and equine inflammation markers. 

1/2016 – 9/2022, Research Associate, Department for Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

• Research Projects: Association of negative energy balance and immune dysfunction in postpartum dairy cows through nutrient-sensing kinase signaling pathways. Focus on the nutrient-sensing kinase mTOR in transition cow inflammatory regulation as a potential novel nutritional intervention target. NIFA-USDA grant; Co-Principal Investigator
• Performance evaluation of on-farm diagnostic tests to detect mastitis pathogens in dairy cows including classic milk microbiology and molecular techniques. Cornell Residency Research grant; Co-Investigator
• Service Work: Evaluation of milking parlor efficacy, udder health and mastitis incidence on dairy farms in New York State. Consultation for farmers on parlor performance, milking procedures and udder hygiene. Courses for producers and veterinarians on assessing udder health opportunities.

5/2011 – 12/2015, Post Doctoral Associate at Cornell Program for Applied Research in Mastitis Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Ithaca, NY

• Research Focus: Dynamics of the immune response during mastitis in late gestation and midlactation dairy cows.
• Tasks and skills: Project manager of experimental E. coli infection trials with dairy cows; management of the research laboratory; characterization of leukocyte subsets by flow cytometry, immune. Histology, conventional and real time PCR. Planning and analysis of microarray based gene expression studies.

2/2009 – 3/2011, Post Doctoral Associate at Immunology Unit, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany

• Research Focus: Regulation of the innate immune response in bovine mastitis and endometritis.
• Tasks and skills: Culture and polarization of bovine macrophages in an in vitro model. Phenotypical and functional characterization of immune cells by flow cytometry. Gene expression analysis in leukocyte subpopulation and tissue by real time PCR. Organization and maintenance of the molecular biology lab. Supervision of master and doctoral students.

10/2006 – 1/2009, Doctoral student at Immunology Unit, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany

• Doctoral thesis research in characterization of modulatory properties of the neuromediator Substance P on bovine immune cells.
• Tasks Separa tainond skofil lsb: ovine immune cells and differentiation of bovine monocyte-derived macrophages. Gene expression analysis by quantitative real time PCR including novel design and validation of primers. Functional analysis of immune cells by flow cytometry.

4/2006 – 9/2006, Research assistant Clinic for Cattle, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany

• Endocrine profiling of non pregnant and pregnant dairy cows. Execution of in-vivo-studies on endocrine profiles during the estrus cycle of dairy cows.

Sipka A, Pomeroy B, Hussen J, Eger M, Schukken Y, Schuberth HJ. Counts of bovine monocyte subsets prior to calving are predictive for postpartum occurrence of mastitis and metritis. Vet Res. 2017 Feb 21;48(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s13567-017-0415-8.

Pomeroy B, Gurjar A, Sipka A, Klaessig S, Salmon S, Quesnell R, Schukken YH. Intramammary immunization with ultraviolet-killed Escherichia coli shows partial protection against late gestation intramammary challenge with a homologous strain. J Dairy Sci. 2016 Sep 13. pii: S0022-0302(16)30626-9. doi: 10.3168/jds.2016-11149.

Anja Sipka, Brianna Pomeroy, Suzanne Klaessig, Ynte Schukken. Bovine natural killer cells are present in Escherichia coli infected mammary gland tissue and show antimicrobial activity in vitro Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.cimid.2016.08.001

Pomeroy B, Sipka A, Klaessig S, Schukken Y. Longitudinal characterization of bovine monocyte-derived dendritic cells from mid-gestation into subsequent lactation reveals nadir in phenotypic maturation and macrophage-like cytokine profile in late gestation. J Reprod Immunol. 2016 Aug 30;118:1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jri.2016.08.003.

Sipka A, Klaessig S, Duhamel GE, Swinkels J, Rainard P, Schukken Y. Impact of intramammary treatment on gene expression profiles in bovine Escherichia coli mastitis. PLoS One. 2014 Jan 14;9(1):e85579. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085579. eCollection 2014.

Sipka A., Gurjar A., Klaessig S., Duhamel G.E., Skidmore A., Swinkles J., Cox P., Schukken Y., 2013. Prednisolone and Cefapirin act complementary in resolving experimental E. Coli mastitis. J of Dairy Sci. doi: 10.3168/jds.2012-6455. [Epub ahead of print]

Düvel A., Frank C., Schnapper A., Schuberth H.J., Sipka A. 2012. Classically or alternatively activated bovine monocyte-derived macrophages in vitro do not resemble CD163/Calprotectin biased macrophage populations in the teat. Innate Immun. 18(6): 886-96

Sipka A., Langner K., Seyfert H.M., Schuberth H.J. 2010. Substance P alters the in-vitro responsiveness of bovine monocytes and blood derived macrophages. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 136(3-4): 219-26

Riccardo Tassi; Tom McNeilly; Anja Sipka; Ruth N Zadoks. Correlation of hypothetical virulence traits of two Streptococcus uberis strains with the clinical manifestation of bovine mastitis; Vet Res. 2015 Oct 23;46:123. doi: 10.1186/s13567-015-0268-y.

Pomeroy B, Sipka A, Klaessig S, Schukken Y.Monocyte-derived dendritic cells from late gestation cows have an impaired ability to mature in response to E. coli stimulation in a receptor and cytokine-mediated fashion. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2015 Jul 2. pii: S0165-2427(15)00142-7. doi: 10.1016/j.vetimm.2015.06.016. [Epub ahead of print]

Monique Lind, Anja S Sipka, Hans-Joachim Schuberth, Andreas Blutke, Rüdiger Wanke, Carola Sauter-Louis, Katarzyna A Duda, Otto Holst, Pascal Rainard, Pierre Germon, Holm Zerbe, and Wolfram Petzl. Location-specific expression of chemokines, TNF-α and S100 proteins in a teat explant model. Innate Immunity 1753425914539820, first published on August 17, 2014 as doi:10.1177/1753425914539820

Piechotta M, Holzhausen L, Araujo MG, MHeppelmann, A Sipka, Pfarrer C, Schuberth HJ, Bollwein H. Ante partal insulin-like growth factor concentrations indicating differences in the metabolic adaptive capacity in dairy cows. J Vet Sci. 2014 Jun 20. [Epub ahead of print]

Renner L, von Soosten D, Sipka A, Döll S, Beineke A, Schuberth HJ, Dänicke S. Effect of conjugated linoleic acid on proliferation and cytokine expression of bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells and splenocytes ex vivo. Arch Anim Nutr. 2012 Apr;66(2):73-85.

Sander A.K., Piechotta M., Schlamberger G., Bollwein H., Kaske M., Sipka A., Schuberth H.J. 2011. Ex vivo phagocytic overall performance of neutrophilic granulocytes and the relation to plasma insulin like growth factor-I concentration in dairy cows during the transition period. J of Dairy Sci. 94(4): 1762-71

Schukken YH, Günther J, Fitzpatrick J, Fontaine MC, Goetze L, Holst O, Leigh J, Petzl W, Schuberth HJ, Sipka A, Smith DG, Quesnell R, Watts J, Yancey R, Zerbe H, Gurjar A, Zadoks RN, Seyfert HM; members of the Pfizer mastitis research consortium. 2011. Host-response patterns of intramammary infections in dairy cows. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 144:270-289.

06/2013- 07/2015: Fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) Project SI 1987/1-1: The role of natural killer cells in modulating the immune response in bovine E. coli mastitis.

• Since 01/2016: Member of the editorial board for the Journal of Dairy Science
• Since 01/2016: Member of the American Dairy Science Association