Professor Kathryn North FMedSci

Kathryn North is Director and CEO of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She is an exceptional clinician scientist with a major and profound contribution to wider societal and health outcomes, both nationally within Australia and internationally, generating and publishing evidence across the innovation pathway from discovery to clinical adoption. Her discovery of ACTN3 as “the gene for speed” and its link to elite athletic performance has been replicated in over 80 ACTN3 association studies internationally and has spawned new fields of research. Her work in Australia in rapid sequencing of acutely unwell children has influenced the establishment of the service in the NHS and has led to life changing impacts for patients and family members.