Hi, I’m Kathryn. I’m an Artist, Author and Illustrator—and also a Scientist!

I found my way into Science through making Art. In my first year at Falmouth College of Arts (Cornwall, UK), while fellow art students were making etchings of seashell still lives and stormy oil paintings, I made a series of Cell Paintings inspired by the brightly-coloured microscopy images I found in the biology textbooks in the art school library. Although I didn’t understand the images at the time, this experience has shaped my art and my life since.

After finishing art school, I took a job scooping live crickets into tubs to be sold in pet shops for people who keep exotic pets. I was later told I was the most excited person they had ever interviewed for the position.

From there, I moved onto a Lab Technician role at an infertility clinic in London, looking down a microscope, counting and freezing sperm to be used in treatments. I started studying Science in evening classes, eager to learn more, eventually enrolling on a second undergraduate degree, this time in Molecular Cell Biology, and later PhD at UCL.

I worked as an academic for more than 10 years, rising through the ranks of post-doc to Senior Lecturer in the fields of cardiovascular, renal and neuroendocrinology. Although these areas might appear diverse, in each I worked on different intracellular signalling pathways, using high content imaging to understand how cells sense information in their environment and use it to make decisions—to grow, to move, to survive or even to die. Later, in the Biotech industry, I led a team building complex models of the kidney for testing new medicines in development on behalf of clients in pharmaceutical companies.

I love writing and making connections, and through all my scientific work I have always kept up with science communication and public engagement activities, using art and writing as a means by which to talk about science. Much of my non-fiction writing is centred on synthetic and engineering biology, how it seeks to modularise biology into a parts box that can be assembled in different ways, which you can read about in my blog. This has also inspired my fiction writing, and I am currently working on my first children’s book.

How you can support my work

The best way to support my writing, illustrating and painting is to buy my artwork and support my crowdfunding campaigns. Sign up to my newsletter to be kept up-to-date as I add new work to my shop, and other goings-on. You can get in touch with me via the contact form.