Jemma Kerns

Dr. Jemma Kerns serves as a Senior Lecturer and Director of Research at Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, a position she has held since August 2018. As Director of Research, she champions and advocates for the medical school's research activities while maintaining an active research program focused on spectroscopic techniques for healthcare applications.

Her research primarily centers on developing Raman and infrared spectroscopy techniques for early diagnosis of bone conditions including osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and osteogenesis imperfecta. She is particularly interested in advancing computational methodologies for spectral processing and analysis to translate these techniques into clinical settings for non-invasive, high-throughput medical diagnosis. Her work spans multiple disciplines including biomedical engineering, bone biology, and diagnostic medicine, with applications in both clinical practice and archaeological science.

Dr. Kerns' publication record demonstrates a consistent focus on applying spectroscopic techniques to medical diagnostics, with recent work spanning from bone health analysis to wildlife conservation applications. Her research shows increasing interdisciplinary collaboration, connecting medical diagnostics with conservation science, particularly in ivory identification techniques.

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Inspirational Woman for EDI award

As a PhD supervisor, Dr. Kerns mentors students in Raman spectroscopy applications to bone biology, non-invasive detection of mineralization in bone, and osteoporosis prediction and prevention. She currently supervises Dr. Milli Raizada. Her research is supported by multiple grants including projects on ivory detection at customs, bone health monitoring in sailors aboard the Mary Rose, and prevention of osteoporosis through early monitoring of bone health.

Dr. Kerns is actively involved with several research groups including the Cancer Biology and Genome Stability group, Centre for Ageing Research, Experimental Medicine group, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, and LIRA - Biomedical.