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Nessa Carey
Nessa Carey at Eastbourne Sceptics in the Pub in February 2015 after her Epigenetics talk.
Born	Nessa Carey
Nationality	United Kingdom
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Scientific career
Fields	Epigenetics, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Virology
Institutions	Imperial College London

Nessa Carey is the author of The Epigenetics Revolution and of Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome. She is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and a former Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology. She is now director of exploratory research at CellCentric Limited and is also International Director of technology transfer organisation in PraxisUnico.

Education and Academic Career

After leaving school, Carey attended the University of Edinburgh to study Veterinary medicine.

This didn't last because I was allergic to fur, unable to think in 3D (not good for anatomy), quite bored and really rubbish at the course.

— Nessa Carey

Having limited aptitude for the course and reacting badly to animal fur she left. She then worked for five years in the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory because "...amongst the ads for short order chefs (I couldn't cook) and van drivers (I couldn't drive), was one for a forensic scientist. And oddly enough I had always wanted to work at this end of crime." Studying part-time she realised she loved academic science, returning to the University of Edinburgh and obtaining a PhD with her doctoral thesis on the Virology of the maedi-visna virus which affects sheep.

Her post-doctoral research was in the field of human genetics at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School after which she became a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology at Imperial College London School of Medicine. She left to work in industry for thirteen years, but since 2013 has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London.

Professional Career

While her academic career could have been described as "living the dream" Nessa Carey became frustrated with not being able to see how her work was directly influencing patient health and not being the great scientist she wished she could be. Moving from academia to industry wasn't easy for her.

“I was worried that people would feel I had given up... It’s almost like you’re letting the side (academia) down.”

— Nessa Carey

Not written nicely, all notes.

In 2001 Nessa joined Vernalis in the days when it was a specialist neuroscience company, initially as Director of Molecular Biology and ultimately as Head of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology. In 2004 she moved into oncology and epigenetics drug discovery, becoming Head of Biology for TopoTarget before joining CellCentric in June 2006.

She worked in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry for thirteen years and is now International Director for the UK's leading organisation for technology transfer professionals. She lives in Norfolk and is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College... I spent 13 years in the biotech and pharmaceutical sector, but in 2014 decided to change career paths again.

BOOKMARK Career: Nessa Carey is a virologist whose career has straddled academia and the biotech industry. She is now director of exploratory research at CellCentric. Her debut book, The Epigenetics Revolution, explores the emerging field pushing the frontiers of biology. Personal:Which book(s) are you currently reading? South with Scott (1921) by Edward Evans; The Long Firm (1999) by Jake Arnott Which three books have been most influential in your life? My Family and Other Animals (1956) by Gerald Durrell I grew up in London and was the only child I knew who was fascinated by insects and the natural world. This book reassured me that I wasn’t alone. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847) The minute I finished reading Jane Eyre for the first time at age 15, I turned back to page one and read it all the way through again. Jane is still my favourite heroine, especially when she stakes her claim for equality with Mr Rochester. Affluenza (2007) by Oliver James. I chose this book because it helped me jump off the consumerist treadmill and I’ve been much happier since. Which book do you want to read next? The Diversity of Life (1999) by E.O. Wilson. I love writers who can both see and communicate the beauty of science, and no one does it better than him.

Organisation: PraxisUnico Job title: International Director Biography Dr Nessa Carey is the International Director at PraxisUnico, the networking and training organisation which represents technology transfer officers. Prior to taking on this role in 2014, she was a Senior Director at Pfizer, specialising in generating new collaborations with academia. Nessa has 10 years experience in senior scientific roles in UK biotech companies, a career path she embarked on after leaving an academic position at Imperial College, where she is now a Visiting Professor. Perhaps a little bizarrely, she is also a former forensic scientist and briefly trained as a vet. Nessa has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and is the author of the popular science books The Epigenetics Revolution and Junk DNA: A Journey Through The Dark Matter Of The Human Genome.

Nessa Carey (right) has joined CellCentric (Cambridge, UK) as director of research. Dr. Carey was most recently head of biology at TopoTargets, and previously served as head of molecular biology and pharmacology at Vernalis from 2001 to 2004.

Nessa Carey PhD is International Director at PraxisUnico, the UK organisation for Technology Transfer Professionals. Prior to joining PraxisUnico, Nessa held various senior scientific roles in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors for 13 years. In many of the companies her main responsibility was identifying collaborative and partnering opportunities from academic institutions, forming the relationships and driving the resulting translational research. Nessa is a former academic at Imperial College London, where she is now a Visiting Professor. She serves on the committees of a number of UK government funding agencies and is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP).

Career profile “When opportunity comes knocking, it’s best not to be in the shower” With 31 years’ experience, Dr Carey is currently developing, delivering and marketing international training courses to provide people with the skills they need to drive commercial and social impact from academic science. “I think of myself of someone who has had a lot of careers in science, rather than one scientific career.” I left academia to join a biotech company. Three senior jobs in biotech later, I joined Pfizer. After three years there I became International Director at PraxisUnico, the first time in nearly 30 years in which I stopped being a full-time scientist. I am Visiting Professor at Imperial College and the author of two popular science books. The Epigenetics Revolution and Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome,” “My career highlights include working on high level murder cases; successfully carrying out a pre-natal testing that a clinic hadn’t been able to crack, which meant that they could tell a pregnant woman that she was finally carrying a foetus that wouldn’t be affected by a severe genetic disease; taking highly academic research and turning it into a drug discovery programme that was partnered with a major pharmaceutical company; seeing one of my PhD students to go on to a really successful post-doc position in Francis Collins’ lab; creating a great BSc course for medical students; writing a popular science book that has reached a lot of people, and given me loads of opportunities to spread the word about how fascinating biology can be; being appointed onto a MRC grant panel – I finally felt respectable!” Having worked in both academia and industry, Dr Carey expresses one of her biggest challenges and obstacles, “I think academia still has a long way to go in terms of supporting staff and seeing them as assets. There are exceptions in every sector of course, but generally I have felt far more supported and valued in industry. I was better at teaching than I was at research, at a time when teaching was undervalued.”

After plucking up the courage and having made the leap 12 years ago, she has moved around in 4 different jobs, finally ending up at Pfizer, where she is now the senior director. Industry suits her better because of the culture, “there’s a real sense of shared purpose,” everyone is working together towards a common goal. The variation in her role is also what she loves. By having worked in biotech and pharma, she can still keep her fingers in the science pie. “It really does feel like I have the best of both possible worlds.”

Book writing

Carey's books are aimed at the general audience who is scientifically interested. Her first book, The Epigenetics Revolution describes how epigenetic modifications allow the same DNA to express subtly or greatly different characteristics, such as for example, both a caterpillar and a butterfly.

Nessa Carey... writes brightly and humanely and is full of optimism for this exciting new dawn – both for the deep understanding of life and the potential for medical applications. She hasn't, though, solved the problem of how to make the mind-numbing complexity of some genomic interactions and the confusing nomenclature of genes palatable to the general reader... Nevertheless, Carey's book is the first to set out the epigenetics stall for the general reader, and anyone seriously interested in who we are and how we function should read this book.

— Peter Forbes, The Guardian, August 19, 2011

Notes to be arranged

Hobbies/Personal life: And outside of work? I love birdwatching (no, I don't have a life-list), cycling, scavenging stuff from skips, and growing vegetables. I am now kind of living my fantasy about having a smallholding. It is more of a tiny-holding really and as predicted, I will starve to death if I really have to be self-sufficient. And I can now cook. And drive.

Book: That's not so different from the conventional explanation of how the genome works – more a small tweak in our understanding – but it's just the start of junk DNA's weird and intricate story. From "sleeper agents" that used to be viruses to reading genes backwards, Nessa Carey's book, Junk DNA, guides us through this dark side of the genome. And it's a side that is turning out to be full of strange twists and turns. It's a formidable subject, but one that Carey, a former senior lecturer in molecular biology at Imperial College, London, is completely at home with. She does a great job of describing the politics of this controversial field. "At one extreme," she writes, "we have scientists claiming experimental proof is lacking to support sometimes sweeping claims. At the other are those who feel there is a whole generation of scientists (if not more) trapped in an outdated model and unable to see or understand the new order."

Book:Nessa Carey has a PhD in virology from the University of Edinburgh and has had successful careers in both the university and commercial settings. She was a Senior Lecturer at Imperial College School of Medicine in London, where she led a research team investigating a genetic disorder that gets worse and worse as it passes down through the generations in an affected family. For nearly ten years she has worked in the biotech industry, trying to take basic science discoveries and turn them into new treatments for human diseases. Over the last four years she has been working with some of the world’s leading scientists in the exciting new field of epigenetics. Epigenetics is the biology that explains so many of the puzzling things around us – why identical twins get less identical with age; why childhood trauma can affect you for the next sixty years of your life; why our bodies change as we age; why we develop common diseases like arthritis and how we can start to treat them better – and her book explores all these and much more.

Making a welcome return to the festival is Nessa Carey who will be talking about epigenetics and how modern biology is rewriting our understanding of genetics, disease and inheritance. DNA isn’t the whole picture. People with the same genes can be very different from each other – think caterpillar and butterfly. The chemicals which control their genes – Epigenetics – are Nessa Carey’s story, which she tells with luminous clarity. Identical twins become more dissimilar as they age, despite sharing an identical DNA script. The differences can even be as extreme as one twin developing a serious disease while the other remains completely healthy. Scientists are starting to understand how these epigenetic differences are created and maintained. The process depends on a complex set of chemicals that our cells add to our genes. These chemical changes control how genes are expressed, so that the same genetic code can create different outcomes. They can also have unexpected effects. For example, epigenetics is very significant to human health and disease and may have a role in a wide range of conditions from chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and schizophrenia, to drug addiction and to the long-term effects of abusive or neglectful childhoods. It is also known to be important in cancer. Sometimes, epigenetic effects may even be passed on from parent to child. Children born to mothers who have lived through starvation may have increased susceptibilities to various diseases later in life. Animal studies have suggested that fear itself may be passed down to offspring.

Nessa Carey has a virology PhD from the University of Edinburgh and is a former Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology at Imperial College, London. She has worked in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry for ten years. She lives in Bedfordshire and this is her first book. Interview with Nessa Carey, For our readers who are not familiar with epigenetics, could you give us a brief summary of what it is? Lots of things that are genetically identical turn out not to look or be the same as each other – the cells in a human body; a caterpillar and the butterfly it turns into; identical twins who develop different diseases ... Epigenetics is the science that explains how this happens, via subtle modifications to genetic material. What is the best contemporary novel you've read in the last year? Long haul flights are about the only chance I get to read and I want something that has huge narrative drive to pass the time. I’m a big fan of detective novels, and Mark Billingham is particularly engrossing e.g. Good as Dead. What do you think is the most exciting potential application of epigenetics? Creating replacement tissues that are completely compatible with the patient who needs them from their own cells. These won’t rely on organ donors or embryonic stem cells. What was the book that most influenced your life and why? The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould. As an idealistic 19 year old it was a shock that science could be so badly abused, and by scientists as well as politicians. Do you have a favorite quote or passage from The Epigenetics Revolution that you'd like to share with us? It’s very puerile, I’m afraid. I was trying to explain how DNA can act like a script and that a mutation in DNA can be like a mis-print in a script. The example I generated was “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore fart thou Romeo?” If you had a book club, what would it be reading and why? Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, because everyone should stand armed against the rising tide of nonsense that threatens to overwhelm us.

Nessa Carey quotes “Our brains contain one hundred billion nerve cells (neurons). Each neuron makes links with ten thousand other neurons to form an incredible three dimensional grid. This grid therefore contains a thousand trillion connections - that's 1,000,000,000,000,000 (a quadrillion). It's hard to imagine this, so let's visualise each connection as a disc that's 1mm thick. Stack up the quadrillion discs on top of each other and they will reach the sun (which is ninety-three million miles from the earth) and back, three times over.” ― Nessa Carey, The Epigenetics Revolution “But DNA isn’t really like that. It’s more like a script. Think of Romeo and Juliet, for example. In 1936 George Cukor directed Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer in a film version. Sixty years later Baz Luhrmann directed Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in another movie version of this play. Both productions used Shakespeare’s script, yet the two movies are entirely different. Identical starting points, different outcomes.” ― Nessa Carey, The Epigenetics Revolution “Sometimes the greatest scientific breakthroughs happen because someone ignores the prevailing pessimism.” ― Nessa Carey, The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance “Children who eat breakfast are statistically more likely to do well at school than children who skip breakfast.” ― Nessa Carey, The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance “You could make iPS cells by introducing just four genes into a differentiated cell.” ― Nessa Carey, The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance

Has written for the Huffington Post Science section,

Has given talks for Bristol University,

Published Articles

1. Carey N. Editorial: epigenetics. Drug Discov Today Technol. 2014 Jun;12:e1-2. doi:10.1016/j.ddtec.2013.10.001. PMID 25027367.
2. Carey N, Marques CJ, Reik W. DNA demethylases: a new epigenetic frontier in drug discovery. Drug Discov Today. 2011 Aug;16(15-16):683-90. doi: 10.1016/j.drudis.2011.05.004. Epub 2011 May 13. Review. PMID 21601651.
3. Best JD, Carey N. Epigenetic therapies for non-oncology indications. Drug Discov Today. 2010 Dec;15(23-24):1008-14. doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2010.10.006. Epub 2010 Oct 23. Review. PMID 20974284.
4. Best JD, Carey N. Epigenetic opportunities and challenges in cancer. Drug Discov Today. 2010 Jan;15(1-2):65-70. doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2009.10.010. Epub 2009 Nov 6. Review. PMID 19897050.
5. Flanagan JM, Funes JM, Henderson S, Wild L, Carey N, Boshoff C. Genomics screen in transformed stem cells reveals RNASEH2A, PPAP2C, and ADARB1 as putative anticancer drug targets. Mol Cancer Ther. 2009 Jan;8(1):249-60. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-08-0636. PMID 19139135.
6. Khan N, Jeffers M, Kumar S, Hackett C, Boldog F, Khramtsov N, Qian X, Mills E, Berghs SC, Carey N, Finn PW, Collins LS, Tumber A, Ritchie JW, Jensen PB, Lichenstein HS, Sehested M. Determination of the class and isoform selectivity of small-molecule histone deacetylase inhibitors. Biochem J. 2008 Jan 15;409(2):581-9. PMID 17868033.
7. Carey N, La Thangue NB. Histone deacetylase inhibitors: gathering pace. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2006 Aug;6(4):369-75. Epub 2006 Jun 14. Review. PMID 16781195.
8. Sultan S, Gosling M, Abu-Hayyeh S, Carey N, Powell JT. Flow-dependent increase of ICAM-1 on saphenous vein endothelium is sensitive to apamin. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2004 Jul;287(1):H22-8. Epub 2004 Feb 12. PMID 14962835.
9. Scoumanne A, Kalamati T, Moss J, Powell JT, Gosling M, Carey N. Generation and characterisation of human saphenous vein endothelial cell lines. Atherosclerosis. 2002 Jan;160(1):59-67. PMID 11755923.
10. Eriksson M, Hedberg B, Carey N, Ansved T. Decreased DMPK transcript levels in myotonic dystrophy 1 type IIA muscle fibers. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2001 Sep 7;286(5):1177-82. PMID 11527424.
11. Sadusky TJ, Kemp TJ, Simon M, Carey N, Coulton GR. Identification of Serhl, a new member of the serine hydrolase family induced by passive stretch of skeletal muscle in vivo. Genomics. 2001 Apr 1;73(1):38-49. Erratum in: Genomics 2001 Jun 1;74(2):251. PMID 11352564.
12. Sturge J, Carey N, Davies AH, Powell JT. Fibrin monomer and fibrinopeptide B act additively to increase DNA synthesis in smooth muscle cells cultured from human saphenous vein. J Vasc Surg. 2001 Apr;33(4):847-53. PMID 11296341.
13. Eriksson M, Ansved T, Anvret M, Carey N. A mammalian radial spokehead-like gene, RSHL1, at the myotonic dystrophy-1 locus. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2001 Mar 9;281(4):835-41. PMID 11237735.
14. Kemp TJ, Sadusky TJ, Saltisi F, Carey N, Moss J, Yang SY, Sassoon DA, Goldspink G, Coulton GR. Identification of Ankrd2, a novel skeletal muscle gene coding for a stretch-responsive ankyrin-repeat protein. Genomics. 2000 Jun 15;66(3):229-41. PMID 10873377.
15. Eriksson M, Ansved T, Edstrom L, Wells DJ, Watt DJ, Anvret M, Carey N. Independent regulation of the myotonic dystrophy 1 locus genes postnatally and during adult skeletal muscle regeneration. J Biol Chem. 2000 Jun 30;275(26):19964-9. PMID 10748037.
16. Gibbs RG, Sian M, Mitchell AW, Greenhalgh RM, Davies AH, Carey N. Chlamydia pneumoniae does not influence atherosclerotic plaque behavior in patients with established carotid artery stenosis. Stroke. 2000 Dec;31(12):2930-5. PMID 11108751.
17. Eriksson M, Ansved T, Edström L, Anvret M, Carey N. Simultaneous analysis of expression of the three myotonic dystrophy locus genes in adult skeletal muscle samples: the CTG expansion correlates inversely with DMPK and 59 expression levels, but not DMAHP levels. Hum Mol Genet. 1999 Jun;8(6):1053-60. PMID 10332037.
18. Gibbs RG, Carey N, Davies AH. Chlamydia pneumoniae and vascular disease. Br J Surg. 1998 Sep;85(9):1191-7. Review. PMID 9752857.
19. Okoli G, Carey N, Johnson KJ, Watt DJ. Over expression of the murine myotonic dystrophy protein kinase in the mouse myogenic C2C12 cell line leads to inhibition of terminal differentiation. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1998 May 29;246(3):905-11. PMID 9618310.
20. Lane R, Carey N, Orrell R, Moxley RT 3rd. Claude Monet's vision. Lancet. 1997 Mar 8;349(9053):734. PMID 9078229.
21. Shaw JA, Walsh T, Chappell SA, Carey N, Johnson K, Walker RA. Microsatellite instability in early sporadic breast cancer. Br J Cancer. 1996 Jun;73(11):1393-7. PMID 8645585; PMC 2074483.
22. King SK, Wells DJ, Wells KE, Carey N, Johnson KJ. A 3.7kb fragment from the myotonic dystrophy protein kinase promoter directs neural-specific expression in vivo. Biochem Soc Trans. 1996 May;24(2):283S. PMID 8736941.
23. Johnson KJ, Boucher Ca, King SK, Winchester CL, Bailey ME, Hamilton GM, Carey N. Is myotonic dystrophy a single-gene disorder? Biochem Soc Trans. 1996 May;24(2):510-3. Review. PMID 8736794.
24. Boucher CA, Carey N, Edwards YH, Siciliano MJ, Johnson KJ. Cloning of the human SIX1 gene and its assignment to chromosome 14. Genomics. 1996 Apr 1;33(1):140-2. PMID 8617500.
25. Boucher CA, King SK, Carey N, Krahe R, Winchester CL, Rahman S, Creavin T, Meghji P, Bailey ME, Chartier FL, et al. A novel homeodomain-encoding gene is associated with a large CpG island interrupted by the myotonic dystrophy unstable (CTG)n repeat. Hum Mol Genet. 1995 Oct;4(10):1919-25. PMID 8595416.
26. Meiner A, Wolf C, Carey N, Okitsu A, Johnson K, Shelbourne P, Kunath B, Sauermann W, Thiele H, Kupferling P, et al. Direct molecular analysis of myotonic dystrophy in the German population: important considerations in genetic counselling. J Med Genet. 1995 Aug;32(8):645-9. PMID 7473660; PMC 1051643.
27. Martorell L, Martinez JM, Carey N, Johnson K, Baiget M. Comparison of CTG repeat length expansion and clinical progression of myotonic dystrophy over a five-year period. J Med Genet. 1995 Aug;32(8):593-6. PMID 7473648; PMC 1051631.
28. Carey N, Johnson KJ. Myotonic disorders and periodic paralysis. Baillieres Clin Neurol. 1994 Aug;3(2):387-405. Review. PMID 7952854.
29. Carey N, Dalziel RG. Sequence variation in the gp135 gene of Maedi visna virus strain EV1. Virus Genes. 1994 Mar;8(2):115-23. PMID 8073632.
30. Carey N, Johnson K, Nokelainen P, Peltonen L, Savontaus ML, Juvonen V, Anvret M, Grandell U, Chotai K, Robertson E, et al. Meiotic drive at the myotonic dystrophy locus? Nat Genet. 1994 Feb;6(2):117-8. PMID 8162064.
31. Carey N, Dalziel RG. The biology of maedi-visna virus--an overview. Br Vet J. 1993 Sep-Oct;149(5):437-54. Review. PMID 8298957.
32. Carey N, Roy DJ, Dalziel RG. Use of recombinant gp135 to study epitope-specific antibody responses to maedi visna virus. J Virol Methods. 1993 Jul;43(2):221-32. PMID 7690044.

External links

• Official website