Dr Deborah Cunninghame Graham, Non-Clinical Senior Lecturer in Molecular Medicine, King's College London

Dr Deborah Cunninghame Graham completed her undergraduate studies in Applied Biology at the University of Hull, followed by a PhD in Molecular Cell Biology at King’s College Hospital, London.  After gaining her first academic job at Imperial College, Deborah moved to King’s College in 2011 to continue her research programme in the functional genomics of the autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.  Deborah’s research uses a combination of experimental and analytical approaches to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying genetic risk factors for lupus. 

Alongside her research and teaching activities, Deborah was appointed the Life Sciences Faculty Lead for Doctoral Student Welfare, following more than 15 years' experience supporting the welfare and academic progression of PhD students at King’s.   One positive focus of this role has been to help PhD students and their supervisors build stronger working relationships.  To facilitate this aim, Deborah trained as an InterPersonal Mediator and set up a Mediation Service, to help PhD students and their supervisors resolve their disagreements.  As part of the focus on positive relationships, Deborah designed training sessions to guide students and supervisors in setting up and maintaining good student-supervisor relationships. Deborah also coaches staff and students through having tricky conversations either to offset the need for mediation, or in situations where formal mediation not possible.