CURRENT POSITION

• Scheme Director, UK NEQAS Guildford Peptide Hormones Scheme (since 2002)

Gwen is a Consultant Clinical Scientist employed within the Blood Sciences department of Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services. She has worked at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford for over 26 years where she is currently the Director of the Supra-regional Assay Service (SAS) Peptide Hormones Laboratory which specialises in the investigation of hypoglycaemia and the role of insulin-like growth factors and their binding proteins. This role includes a large forensic workload and Gwen regularly attends court as an expert witness. Current project work is focussed on developing further LC-MS/MS peptide assays for implementation into the routine laboratory, in particular insulin and C-peptide.

Since 2002, she has also been the Scheme Director of the UK National External Quality Assessment Service (UK NEQAS) Guildford Peptide Hormones Scheme which covers the analytes insulin, C-peptide, gastrin, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3). In 2019, she added Director of the UK NEQAS Trace Elements schemes to her role.

Away from the hospital environment, Gwen is involved in promoting the development of reference methods/measurement systems. She is a member of the British Standards Institution (BSI) CH/212 committee which is responsible for standardisation in the field of in vitro diagnostics and reviewing/developing ISO standards.  She is a member of the IFCC working group (collaboration with American Diabetes Association and European Association for the Study of Diabetes) for the standardisation of insulin assays and a guest member of the NIDDK led C-peptide standardisation committee. In collaboration with the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), she has been involved in the development of WHO International Standards for IGF-I, insulin, C-peptide and proinsulin.

Gwen is ALM Regional Tutor for the South-East and the Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services STP & HSST Training Lead supervising numerous successful scientists from a variety of Pathology disciplines.

As health and safety lead for the pathology network Gwen champions health and safety as well as risk management in all Pathology departments and advises discipline leads on requirements to keep patients and staff safe.

In recognition of all the above, earlier this year Gwen received the South-East Healthcare Science Life Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award.