Christine Kinnon’s work helped turn gene therapy from an experimental idea into treatments that have cured children born with immunodeficiency diseases.
The first in her family to go to university, Professor Christine Kinnon first caught the ‘research bug’ while studying Biochemistry at Newcastle University.
Christine went on to complete a PhD in immunology at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and UCL’s Zoology department. After undertaking postdoctoral research in the United States, she joined the Institute of Child Health in 1986 (now UCL’s Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health), where she would work for 37 years.
Here, Christine learned about children’s diseases and how her research background could help find cures. She set up a group of researchers who were the first in the UK to secure grant funding to research gene therapy techniques to treat human diseases.
Gene therapy didn't exist as a discipline when we started. People were talking about it, but nobody was doing it.
There are a lot more diseases now that you can imagine could be treated using these and related techniques that 25 years ago you wouldn't have thought possible.
At the time, gene therapy was met with scepticism. Some feared that life-saving gene therapy could lead to scientists creating ‘designer babies’. To navigate that scepticism, Christine worked closely with patient groups and charities to help raise awareness, advocate for families, and support early gene therapy research.
Later in her career, Christine took on teaching roles, establishing UCL’s MSc in Cell and Gene Therapy – the first of its kind. She was also part of the team which set up the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children, an innovative centre bringing together researchers, clinicians and patients under one roof to develop world-leading research and clinical care.
I think the community at UCL is very important. It’s very collegiate and I feel honoured and privileged to be part of that.
Since retiring in 2023, Christine remains connected to UCL. As Emeritus Professor of Molecular Immunology, she continues to advise staff and former students at the Institute of Child Health. Her daughter is also at UCL, as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Computer Science.
Christine’s research has helped to cure over a hundred children with immunodeficiency diseases, and she is proud that her students and others are now harnessing gene therapy approaches to continue this important work:
I never cease to be amazed when people tell me what research they’re doing now. It is fantastic how much the field has moved on and how many more diseases can be cured using techniques we pioneered.
