Kate Bishop

Kate Bishop

Principal Group Leader

Kate Bishop received a first class (hon) BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bath following two research placements; one at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and the other at Chiron Corporation in San Francisco, USA.

After completing her PhD studies with Jonathan Stoye working on the retroviral restriction factor, Fv1, she undertook postdoctoral training with Michael Malim at King's College London, investigating the APOBEC family of retroviral restriction factors. Kate was awarded a prestigious Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship in 2004 to continue her APOBEC research.

In 2008 she was simultaneously awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship and a group leader position at NIMR enabling her to broaden her research interests and investigate various aspects of the early stages of retroviral replication. Kate was awarded tenure at the Francis Crick Institute and promoted to Principal Group Leader in 2017. She was an Assistant Research Director at the Crick between 2018 and 2021.

Alongside her research, Kate is passionate about engaging the public with science: from school children to pensioners; from patients to politicians and policy makers. In recent years, Kate has appeared on British television news programs, on YouTube being interviewed live by comedian Dara O’Briain about COVID19, at the Crick event, “Science on Screen”, with actor Nathanial Hall and on stage at the Barbican Theatre in London discussing HIV. Every year her lab organises a Crick World AIDS Day event.

Qualifications and history

2001
MRC-NIMR, London, UK
PhD in Virology
2002
King's College London, UK
Post doctoral researcher
2004
King's College London, UK
Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow
2008
MRC-NIMR, London, UK
Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow and Programme Leader
2015
The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Group Leader
2017
The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Senior Group Leader

Selected outreach and public engagement

 

  • Livestream interview with Dara O’Briain: “COVID Conversation: Going Viral with Dara O’Briain” (2021)
     
  • Guest speaker, “Big Brave” event, University of Glasgow (2020)
     
  • Interviewed by ITV News about the “London HIV Patient” (2019)
     
  • Co-organiser of World AIDS Day event (2017-2018)
     
  • Guest speaker at the "Crick Chat" event on HIV (2017)
     
  • Interview by "Lab Times" publication (2017)
     
  • Interviewed by BBC World Service "Newsday" programme about The Crick and HIV (2016)
     
  • Guest panellist on "The Conversation" on BBC World Service radio, a programme which brings together two extraordinary women each week, to talk about the profession or passion that connects them. Special edition recorded live at The Crick (2016)
     
  • Interviewed by BBC news, BBC news 24, and London Live TV when The Crick first opened its doors (2016)
     
  • Featured in The Observer newspaper's Tech Monthly supplement feature on the Crick (2016)
     
  • Named as a Rising Star in the BioBeat 50 movers and shakers in biobusiness 2015 booklet, that recognises 50 outstanding women bioentrepreneurs and scientific leaders for their contributions to global health innovation (2015)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 26
Last updated : 03 March 2026 03:49