Catherine Williamson, MD, FRCP, FMedSci, is Professor of Women’s Health at Imperial College London. In her clinical practice, she manages women with medical disorders in pregnancy. Her research focuses on the endocrine signals that influence alterations in bile acid, lipid, and glucose homeostasis in normal and pathological pregnancies. She studies the maternal and fetal aetiology, outcomes, and management of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, gestational diabetes mellitus, and severe hyperemesis gravidarum. Her cholestasis work has resulted in the implementation of genetic screening for biliary transporter mutations by the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, and she is now evaluating the impact of identified mutations on maternal future health. Her team also established the threshold concentrations of serum bile acids that are associated with an increased risk of spontaneous preterm birth and stillbirth; work that is now cited in many international guidelines. She is leading clinical trials to evaluate bile acid therapies for gestational cholestasis and diabetes.

She is Director of the Tommy’s National Centre for Preterm Birth Research, a collaboration between Imperial College, University College, King’s College, Queen Mary University London, and Leeds University that includes the UK Preterm Birth Network, enabling involvement of collaborators throughout the UK. As Centre Director, she coordinates a research portfolio that aims to understand the aetiology of preterm birth, develop research-informed interventions, and provide improved support for women affected by preterm birth.

Important national collaborations include leading two pregnancy studies for the NIHR BioResource Rare Disease collaboration, leading the Women’s Health Diverse data collaboration between Genomics England and Tommy’s and being a member of the Obstetric Working Group for the RECOVERY trial during the COVID pandemic. Professor Williamson’s contribution to research has been recognized by the award of Fellowship to the Academy of Medical Sciences and a NIHR Senior Investigator Award.

She contributes to the formation of national and international guidelines; current examples include the NICE Primary Hyperparathyroidism and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Clinical Practice Guideline on Liver Disease in Pregnancy. She was an assessor of maternal deaths in the UK for >10 years and co-authored four CEMD / MBBRACE maternal mortality reports.