Catherine Sutherland

Catherine Sutherland is a Computational Senior Staff Scientist in the Human Genetics programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where she conducts pivotal research on systemic lupus erythematosus within Dr. Emma Davenport's group. Her work focuses on leveraging genomic technologies to address lupus heterogeneity, ancestry disparities, and treatment response mechanisms.

Her research spans genomics, functional genomics, and autoimmune disease mechanisms with emphasis on lupus pathophysiology. She employs single-cell sequencing, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping, and multi-ancestry cohort analysis to investigate immune dysregulation across diverse populations including African, Afro-Caribbean, European, South Asian, and Indigenous Australian ancestries. Current projects involve coordinating large-scale genomic studies of 750 lupus patients and 150 controls to identify ancestry-specific molecular drivers and novel therapeutic targets.

Sutherland actively contributes to advancing personalized medicine for lupus through integration of clinical and omics data, emphasizing the critical need for diverse population representation in genomic research to address healthcare disparities affecting Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities disproportionately burdened by this disease.