Heather McKinnon leads the Chronic Respiratory Infection Translational Challenge.
A pharmacologist by training, Heather received her PhD from the University of Cambridge. She has worked for over 25 years in drug discovery research, starting at Pfizer and moving on to Organon/Schering-Plough/MSD where she worked for 10 years, leading LO/early clinical PoC projects in cardiovascular and inflammatory disease across multiple global sites.
Heather has managed the research portfolio of a cancer charity, Myeloma UK, at the ICR, including setting up a UK Clinical Trials Network. She went on to lead the Drug Discovery group at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow and has an Honorary Professorship in the Institute of Cancer Sciences at the University of Glasgow.
Prior to joining LifeArc, Heather was Head of the Integrated Drug Discovery division of Syngene International. In 2024, Heather joined LifeArc as Site Head, Edinburgh and Senior Director of Translational Science.
