معرفی
Kathleen Liddell is the Herschel Smith Senior Lecturer of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Cambridge, where she serves as the Founding Director of the Cambridge Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences and is a member of the Cambridge Centre for IP and Information Law. She holds degrees including a D.Phil from Oxford, LLB (hons) and BSc from Melbourne, and an MBioeth from Monash. With experience in both academic and practical legal settings, including private practice and public sector legal services for a health department, Dr. Liddell brings a comprehensive perspective to her interdisciplinary work at the intersection of law, medicine, and technology.
Dr. Liddell's educational background reflects her interdisciplinary approach:
- D.Phil in Law from the University of Oxford, focusing on regulation of controversial genetic technologies in morally pluralist societies
- LLB (hons) and BSc from the University of Melbourne
- MBioeth from Monash University
Her research focuses on health, medicine and society, with particular emphasis on intellectual property frameworks that govern medical innovation. Dr. Liddell examines how intellectual property rights both help and hinder the translation of medical discoveries into effective clinical treatments, and how these frameworks could be modified to be more effective and just. She leads international collaborations investigating intellectual property law across five key areas of bioinnovation: pharmaceutical repurposing, antibiotics, biologics, rare diseases, and machine-learning based precision medicine. Her work also addresses legal challenges in pre-mortem interventions for organ transplantation, regulatory gaps in healthcare, and the application of theoretical insights from regulatory and political theory to biomedical controversies.
Dr. Liddell employs diverse legal methodologies including statutory and case law analysis, normative analysis drawing on moral philosophy, regulatory theory, empirical investigations (interviews, surveys, patent mapping), and expert meetings. She has made significant contributions to understanding the impact of patent law on life sciences innovation, particularly regarding genetic technologies, precision medicine, and diagnostic tools.
Her notable scientific contributions include:
- Principal investigator for a major research project on intellectual property rights, precision medicine and genomic medicine (2015-2018)
- International collaborations on intellectual property law in bioinnovation
- Empirical studies on the impact of patent law on medical innovation
- Research on regulatory frameworks for emerging health technologies
- Analysis of legal implications for organ transplantation and antimicrobial resistance
Dr. Liddell actively supervises research theses at all levels, including PhD students, and teaches across various courses including Law and Ethics of Medicine, Law, Medicine and Life Sciences, Intellectual Property, and the Law PhD Research Methodologies course. She also serves as a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne, teaching 'Law and Emerging Health Technologies.'
Her research has significant practical applications, informing policy development in areas such as:
- Intellectual property frameworks for medical innovation
- Regulation of diagnostics and pharmaceuticals
- Legal aspects of precision medicine and genomic medicine
- Machine learning applications in healthcare
- Stem cell and regenerative medicine
- Gene editing technologies
