Karen Piper Hanley

Overview

• Senior Lecturer in Molecular Medicine
• Senior Postgraduate Tutor - Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Gastroenterology
• Tutor for Personal and Professional Development (TPPD) - MBChB 

Biography

Karen Piper Hanley has had an unusual and varied introduction into medical research. Her early career began in 1990 as a junior researcher in Biochemistry and Genetics at the University of Newcastle, under the guidance of Professor Steve Yeaman. Following graduation in 1995 with a BSc Hons in Biomedical Science from the University of Northumbria, she worked as a research assistant in the Molecular Genetics Unit at the University of Newcastle with Drs Martyn Farrer and Ann Curtis investigating genetic associations in cardiovascular disease. In 1999, Karen became interested in human development and, as the only researcher on a single year pump funding project with Professor David Wilson in the Molecular Genetics Unit, she generated all of the data that went on to secure a £500K project grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDRF) with Professors Neil Hanley, David Wilson and Steve Ball. This grant enabled Karen to study for a PhD in Human Pancreas Development which she completed in 2003 at the University of Southampton following a relocation of the Hanley and Wilson groups in 2000. In 2006 she was awarded a Career-track postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Southampton. In 2008, she moved to become Lecturer in Molecular Medicine at the University of Manchester located in the Endocrinology and Diabetes group.