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Professor Helen McCarthy

Helenh Mccarthy

Helen has been an academic at the School of Pharmacy (Queen’s University Belfast) since 2006. Helen is highly translational, having spun out her first company in 2017 to use peptides to deliver nucleic acids for mRNA vaccines. During her time as CEO (2017-23), Helen secured a portfolio of 11 Innovate UK grants as non-dilutive funding. She has spun out her second company (XapHe) in 2024 on the targeted delivery of mRNA therapeutics, a first for Northern Ireland. After securing her Chair in Nanomedicine in 2016, Helen has had numerous, cross-university leadership roles, most recently as Dean of Postgraduate Strategy (2021-2022) and Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Business Development (2022-2024).

In June 2024, Helen was appointed to the role of Northern Ireland’s first Chief Scientific and Technology Advisor (50% FTE). As CSTA, Helen provides scientific advice to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, works across the executive, is an independent scientific voice, represents NI in the CSA network and advocates for science and technology across government policymaking. Helen has also recently been appointed to the Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport’s UK Soft Power Council to represent Science and Technology.