Professor Dame Fiona Powrie DBE FMedSci FRS

Dame Fiona Powrie is Director of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and a Professor of Musculoskeletal Sciences at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include characterising the interaction between the intestinal microbiota and the host immune system and how this mutualistic relationship breaks down in inflammatory bowel disease.

Her work has identified the functional role of regulatory T cells in intestinal homeostasis and shed light on their development and mechanism of action. She has also shown that both adaptive and innate immune mechanisms contribute to intestinal inflammation and identified the IL-23 pathway as a pivotal player in the pathogenesis of chronic intestinal inflammation. Her current work seeks to translate findings from model systems into the clinic in inflammatory bowel disease patients.

Fiona received the Ita Askonas Award from the European Federation of Immunological Societies for her contribution to immunology in Europe, followed by the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2012.

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2011, EMBO in 2013, the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014 and an International Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. Fiona received an Honorary Lifetime Membership of the British Society of Immunology in 2021.

Fiona joined the Wellcome Trust Board of Governors in 2018 and was appointed Deputy Chair in 2022. Also in 2022, Fiona was appointed Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to Medical Science.