Hi, I’m Kathryn. I’m a scientist, artist, writer and researcher.

Science found me after my degree in Fine Art. My collection of Cell Paintings left me wondering what those brightly-coloured microscopy images were.

I had always been in awe of the delicacy and intricacy of biology, so when I left art school I took a job on an insect farm. Here I experienced the joy of working alongside crickets, locusts, mealworms and all manner of reptiles. I took extra science A-levels in evening classes, and before long I was studying for my undergraduate degree in Molecular Cell Biology at UCL.

There is a Philosopher of Science whose name I’ll write here when I remember it, who famously said, “Can I spray it?” when deciding whether or not something was real. So many scientific concepts are unable to be seen with our eyes and instead must be accepted on faith. For me, I asked, “Can I make it?” The way that my artist’s brain wants to understand the world is to draw it. This helped me to understand complicated concepts as I was studying and later ask questions in my own scientific research - if I was going to draw or make the system myself, what information was I missing?

Perhaps not surprisingly, I’m drawn to the world of Synthetic Biology, how it seeks to modularise biology into a parts box that can be assembled in different ways. This resonates with my Illustrations and Paintings, which use metaphor and allegory to bring together seemingly disparate elements into a greater whole.

I was an academic for many years, rising through the ranks of post-doc to Senior Lecturer in the fields of cardiovascular, renal and neuroendocrinology. In the Biotech industry, I led a team building complex models of the kidney for pharmaceutical clients to test their new medicines in. Now I am writing and illustrating a book. I am sharing excerpts on my blog as I write. Illustrations can be purchased as prints in my shop or on Etsy.

My book is about how naturally-occurring molecules can be re-purposed to create new biology, particularly in the discovery of new medicines. I’m doing all this with the eyes of an artist - looking into the nuts and bolts of making using biology, as well as examining the ethics of whether we should be tinkering with biology, and what this says about us as humans.