Carola Garcia De Vinuesa MD, PhD, FFSc (RCPA), FAA, FAHMS, FRS, FMedSci

Carola Vinuesa is Principal Group Leader, Royal Society Wolfson Fellow, and Assistant Research Director at the Francis Crick Institute in London. She earned her medical degree from the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, trained clinically in the UK, and completed a PhD at the University of Birmingham. Following postdoctoral work at the Australian National University, she became Professor of Immunology, Head of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease, and co-founded the Centre for Personalised Immunology, with a sister centre in Shanghai.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Australian Academy of Science, and both the UK and Australian Academies of Medical Sciences, Vinuesa is recognized for pioneering discoveries in antibody regulation and autoimmunity. She identified the ROQUIN gene and its role in mRNA regulation, leading to the identification of T follicular helper (TFH) cells as an independent T-cell subset and bona fide B cell helper, and to the discovery of T follicular regulatory (TFR) cells. Her team also revealed that TLR7 gain-of-function variants can cause lupus, paving the way for receptor-targeted therapies. Her discovery of the CALM2-G114R variant and subsequent work were critical in overturning the wrongful conviction of Kathleen Folbigg, imprisoned for 20 years over her children’s deaths.