Kerry McLaughlin
PhD
Scientific Programme Lead
Current Role
Dr Kerry McLaughlin is the Scientific Programme Lead for Rare Diseases and Neuropsychiatry at the Centre for Medicines Discovery in the Nuffield Department of Medicine. In collaboration with scientific colleagues, she has responsibility for identifying and initiating new translational proposals and leveraging funding to support collaborative research programmes.
Please get in contact to discuss translational opportunities to collaborate and partner with the Centre for Medicines Discovery.
Biography
Kerry completed her PhD in Immunology at The Pirbright Institute and King’s College London, under the supervision of Prof Bryan Charleston. She then spent 6 years as a postdoc with Dr Mike Christie in the Diabetes Research Group, King’s College London, researching the role of B cells and autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. This led to the identification of tetraspanin-7 as an autoantigen in type 1 diabetes - BBC News - Final piece of type 1 diabetes puzzle solved.
This discovery formed the basis of her subsequent JDRF Advanced Postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford studying the value of antibodies against the autoantigen tetraspanin-7 as a biomarker in type 1 diabetes as well as its function in pancreatic islets. During this time, she was selected to participate in the Diabetes UK 'Innovators in Diabetes' Leadership Programme.
More recently, she joined the Medical Research Council as a Programme Manager for Training & Careers, where she had responsibility for end-to-end programme management for clinical fellowships, specifically CRTFs, and worked on a number of wider training and capacity building initiatives, including strategic funding calls and cross-partnership research culture initiatives. She co-produced resources, in collaboration with the Academy of Medical Sciences, to encourage take up of mentoring opportunities for MRC-funded fellows - LinkedIn - Why Mentoring Matters and YouTube - Why Mentoring Matters.