Caroline Wright

Caroline Fiona Wright
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Exeter Wellcome Sanger Institute
Thesis	Folding and aggregation of an immunoglobulin domain  (2004)

CarolineFiona Wright is a British biochemist and Professor of Genetics at the University of Exeter. She develops genome-wide sequencing technology for the diagnosis of rare diseases. She was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2025.

Early life and education

Wright studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, where she focussed on biological chemistry. ^[1] She graduated in 1997. ^[2] Her doctoral research investigated the aggregation of immunoglobulin domains. ^[3]

Research and career

Wright joined The PHG (Population Health and Genomics) Foundation, a think tank in Cambridge that looks to understand how emerging technologies (including genomics) can provide more effective healthcare and improve patient's lives.

Wright was appointed to the Wellcome Sanger Institute. ^[4] At Sanger she managed the Deciphering Developmental Disorders project, ^[5] a translational research study that makes use of exome sequencing to understand undiagnosed developmental disorders. ^[6] Genome sequencing, which is now offered on the National Health Service, can improve the quality of life of children with development disorders. ^{[7] [8]}

Wright joined the University of Exeter in 2017, where she was made a Personal Chair in Genomic Medicine in 2020. She has developed genome sequencing techniques to diagnose rare diseases. ^[9] She looks to understand rare disease causing variants in genes. She was seconded to Genomics England where she was scientific lead for the 100,000 Genomes Project. In particular, Wright led on variant discovery and clinical interpretation. ^[10]

She leads the Enhanced Interpretation Genomics England Clinical Interpretation Partnership. ^[11] In 2025 she was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. ^{[12] [13]}

Select publications

• Sebastian Köhler; Sandra C Doelken; Christopher J. Mungall; et al. (January 2014). "The Human Phenotype Ontology project: linking molecular biology and disease through phenotype data". Nucleic Acids Research . 42 (Database issue): D966-74. doi:10.1093/NAR/GKT1026. ISSN   0305-1048. PMC   3965098 . PMID   24217912. Wikidata   Q27927005.
• Caroline F Wright; Tomas W Fitzgerald; Wendy D Jones; et al. (17 December 2014). "Genetic diagnosis of developmental disorders in the DDD study: a scalable analysis of genome-wide research data". The Lancet . 385 (9975): 1305–1314. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61705-0. ISSN   0140-6736. PMC   4392068 . PMID   25529582. Wikidata   Q30881351.
• Caroline F Wright; David R FitzPatrick; Helen V Firth (19 February 2018). "Paediatric genomics: diagnosing rare disease in children". Nature Reviews Genetics . doi:10.1038/NRG.2018.12. ISSN   1471-0056. PMID   29456250. Wikidata   Q49886189.

References

1. "Caroline Wright". Exeter Biomedical Research Centre. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
2. "Jesuan elected to Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences | Jesus College in the University of Cambridge". www.jesus.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
3. Folding and aggregation of an immunoglobulin domain | WorldCat.org. OCLC   890159794.
4. "DR CAROLINE WRIGHT 2015". Gene People. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
5. Williams, Elliott (2023-05-19). "The DDD study: Delivering diagnoses". Genomics Education Programme. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
6. Wright, Caroline F.; McRae, Jeremy F.; Clayton, Stephen; Gallone, Giuseppe; Aitken, Stuart; FitzGerald, Tomas W.; Jones, Philip; Prigmore, Elena; Rajan, Diana; Lord, Jenny; Sifrim, Alejandro; Kelsell, Rosemary; Parker, Michael J.; Barrett, Jeffrey C.; Hurles, Matthew E. (October 2018). "Making new genetic diagnoses with old data: iterative reanalysis and reporting from genome-wide data in 1,133 families with developmental disorders". Genetics in Medicine. 20 (10): 1216–1223. doi:10.1038/gim.2017.246. ISSN   1530-0366. PMC   5912505 . PMID   29323667.
7. "Girl's life saved by pioneering study of rare diseases". BBC News. 2024-10-15. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
8. "Thousands receive diagnosis after 60 new diseases found". BBC News. 2023-04-13. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
9. JV. "Meet The Team". PARADIGM. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
10. "What is the Genomics England Research Network?". Genomics England. 2024-03-20. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
11. "GeCIP Detailed Research Plan Form" (PDF). 2015.
12. "Academy of Medical Sciences announces new Fellows for 2025". acmedsci.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
13. Adesina, Ayooluwatomi (2025-05-22). "Genomic medicine scientist elected to prestigious fellowship". Exeter Biomedical Research Centre. Retrieved 2025-06-29.