Carina Kern

Dr Kern at Linnean Society

Carina Kern is a geneticist whose research focuses on the biology and genetics of ageing. She is CEO of LinkGevity Limited. Kern was previously a research fellow at the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment in the University College London. Her work concerns the underlying causes of aging, and how they give rise to the diseases of later life. She completed her PhD at the University College London's Division of Biosciences.

Kern is president of the London Evolutionary Network. She is Co-Chair of the CleanTech Business Challenge, an initiative co led by University College London and the London Business School.

Career

Kern has been an outspoken critic of what she argues are ideas that are inadequate to guide research towards an understanding of the aging process. These include the concept of cellular senescence, which she argues has been outgrown by recent research progress.

Her work on C. elegans challenged several decades of orthodoxy on notion of single gene switch-off mechanisms that could extend lifespan. The work was cited in several main stream media outlets in the UK including Sky News, Evening Standard The Times and The Independent

Her work has also looked at how innate immune training can prevent infection at the level of whole organisms.

Recent research

Kern's most recent work focuses on developing a novel theory of ageing focusing on the role of biological constraint as an explanation of how humans age. She has also published work, that looks beyond the latest programmatic theories of ageing, and which seeks to explain the core molecular pathways at the heart of disease.