Rate My Professor Cathy Thornton

Professor Cathy Thornton is Professor of Human Immunology holding a Personal Chair in Biomedical Sciences at Swansea University Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science, University of Wales, Swansea. She serves as Head of Swansea University Medical School and Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Impact. Thornton's research centers on immunological adaptation in pregnancy and antenatal determinants of immune health in childhood, including placental biology in health and adverse obstetric conditions such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and cholestasis. Her work explores immunometabolism, immune function in infancy, global challenges for maternal and neonatal health, novel blood-based diagnostics for pregnancy disorders, and collaborations with developers of blood handling medical devices like those for mechanical circulatory support. She is the Designated Individual for the Human Tissue Authority Human Tissue Research Licence at Swansea University since 2016 and leads the Swansea Immunology Research Lab.

Thornton has published 76 journal articles and one book chapter. Key publications include 'Immunometabolic adaptation in monocytes underpins functional changes during pregnancy' (Rees et al., iScience, 2024), 'Akt and STAT5 mediate naïve human CD4+ T-cell early metabolic response to TCR stimulation' (Jones et al., Nature Communications, 2019), 'Label-Free Identification of White Blood Cells Using Machine Learning' (Nassar et al., Cytometry Part A, 2020), and the book chapter 'Cell preparation for 3D bioprinting' (Al-Sabah et al., 2018). She supervises postgraduate research on immunometabolism of T cells in endometriosis, COVID-19 impacts on fertility, micro- and nanoplastics effects on innate responses, serum analysis for cancer using spectroscopy, and placental extracellular vesicles in multiple sclerosis. Thornton teaches modules including Human Immunology, Human Immunopathology, Child Health, and Human Biology and the Environment.