The Crick is pleased to welcome Professor Carola Vinuesa, who joins as a new senior group leader. Her lab at the Crick will investigate the fundamental mechanisms of autoimmunity in humans.
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The Francis Crick Institute is pleased to welcome Professor Carola Vinuesa, who joins as a new senior group leader. Carola has moved from the Australian National University, where she was Co-Director of the Centre for Personalised Immunology, to set up her laboratory at the Crick.
Carola has over twenty years’ experience in scientific research. She received her medical degree from the University Autonoma of Madrid, before moving to the UK to undertake specialist medical training and was awarded her PhD by the University of Birmingham. As the recipient of a Wellcome Trust International Travelling prize fellowship, Carola went on to do her postdoctoral research at the John Curtin School for Medical Research in the Australian National University, where she became a group leader in 2006.
Carola’s research focuses on understanding immune responses, specifically how our immune system produces high quality, long lasting antibody responses while preventing responses against self or innocuous antigens. Her work has provided a framework for thinking about new approaches to the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Her laboratory at the Crick will investigate the fundamental mechanisms of autoimmunity in humans. By identifying the biomarkers linked to the molecular causes of disease, Carola’s research aims to stratify patients according to the causative pathway, which will direct the use of precision therapies.
On joining the Crick, Carola says: “I am looking forward to interacting with the many extraordinary junior and senior scientists at the Crick. It will be great to work across different fields, doing excellent science, and having fun along the way.”
Carola has received various prestigious awards, including the winner of the Australian Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year (2008) and the Gottschalk Medal of the Australian Academy of Sciences (2009). In 2015, she was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Paul Nurse, director of the Crick, says: “We are delighted to welcome Carola to the Crick. She is an internationally respected and award-winning scientist who brings a wealth of experience to the Institute.”
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