Catherine Abbott

Catherine Abbott, Lady Bird is a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Edinburgh.

Catherine Abbott
Alma mater	University of Reading
Spouse	Sir Adrian Bird ​ (m. 1993)​
Scientific career
Fields	Molecular genetics
Institutions	University of Edinburgh University College London

Education

Abbott completed her BSc degree in 1983 at the University of Reading.^[1] She earned a PhD in biochemical genetics from the University of Reading and the Medical Research Council from Harwell in 1987.^[2]

Research

After her doctorate, Abbott joined University College London as a postdoctoral researcher working on mouse models of human diseases at a molecular level.^[3] She moved to Edinburgh to work in the human genetics unit of the Medical Research Council and then as a tenured academic at the university.^[3][4]

Abbott is a geneticist who studies a strain of mice that develop an early onset of motor neuron disease.^[5] The gene that was mutated in the strain of mice was eEF1A2, which is also present in neurodevelopmental disorders.^[3] She is also interested in what makes motor neurones particularly vulnerable to stress in comparison to other cells in the body, with a focus on making them more robust.^[5] Abbott is developing new models of motor neuron disease to identify new targets for treatments.^[6][7]

The eEF1A2 gene is mutated in some people with autism and epilepsy, and Abbott's lab are modelling the changes to find out why.^[8][9][10] She keeps a lab blog, where they document the important gene mutations they have discovered so far.^[11] She is interested in CRISPR/Cas Tools for gene editing.^[3]

Abbott is a campaigns for diversity within the sciences, and has led the Athena SWAN applications at the University of Edinburgh.^{[12][13][14][15]} She is a member of the British Neuroscience Association.^[16] She is on the panel for the funding panel for the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research.^[17] She is the Associate Editor for ACS journal Chemical Neuroscience.^[18]