Kate joined the Nexxus team in January 2005, taking on the role as manager of Nexxus where she aims to raise the profile of the West of Scotland as a thriving centre for life science activity. She comes from a molecular biology background specialising in Virology having gained a PhD from the University of Reading studying influenza. She has experience of working within the pharmaceutical industry with Wellcome, academia, the NHS as well as public sector funded research organisations including over five years working for the Medical Research Council as a postdoctoral researcher.
Prior to joining the Nexxus team she worked within, eventually acting as head of, knowledge transfer at the Scottish Association for Marine Science at Dunstaffnage, Oban. Through this immersion in knowledge transfer activities she was able to experience a wide range of technological disciplines from geochemistry to biotechnology and numerous facets in between. In addition to her knowledge transfer activities she was the business development manager for the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology, the business incubator co-located at the Dunstaffnage site. Kate has significant experience working between the business/research interface, advancing rewarding collaborative opportunities, which will strengthen her endeavours to progress the creation of a dynamic and interactive life sciences community in the West of Scotland.