Carmen worked in academia for over 10 years on drug and target discovery in the areas of cancer and cardiovascular disease. She joined the MRHA in 2017 as a research fellow to develop reference materials for clinical tests used to detect anti-drug antibodies in haemophilia A patients treated with recombinant coagulation factor (F)VIII. During this time she also worked with collaborators to understand the immunogenicity of FVIII.
Carmen joined Chrysi Sergaki’s team in the Diagnostics Division in 2023 to develop non-mandatory guidance for microbiome medicinal products. External funding from the Food Safety Research Network was then secured to support the development of similar guidance for phage therapeutic products and a pilot study to develop a phage genome reference material.
Carmen is currently supported by external funding from the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) to provide regulatory scientific support for innovators creating novel antimicrobials and diagnostics in the AMR space. This new programme forms part of the wrap around support provided to GAMRIF-funded innovators in programmes lead by CARB-X, FIND, GARD-P, BactiVac, IDRC, and FAILSAFE.