WA Life Sciences Innovation Hub: A conversation with Kate Hilyard

“Translating complexity – getting rid of the jargon that often puts barriers between us”

Through her career, Kate Hilyard has been driven to make a difference to patient lives – from her early academic research in human biology and through her career leading organisations whose mission is to discover drugs. She has held multiple senior executive positions in pharma and biotech including Roche, Cambridge Antibody Technology, Charles River Laboratories and the AI biotech Healx.

Kate joined the UK Vaccine Task Force in July 2020 as an expert on Covid-19 vaccine immunogenicity testing and data, and for over 3 years has advised government ministers and senior civil servants during the pandemic and the post-pandemic periods.

Kate’s two recent roles have had a major theme of translating complexity – in Healx. She helped enable the effective communication between techies and biologists, and in the Vaccine Task Force explaining immunology and virology to civil servants and ministers who may not have done any science since they were 15 years old.

To achieve anything you have to find ways of overcoming the barrier of complexity, which Kate will explore through a seminar followed by a fireside chat (Q&A encouraged) with WA Life Sciences Innovation Hub’s Director of Stakeholder Engagement Dr Tracey Wilkinson.