Professor Rachel Lennon is a Wellcome Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science at the University of Manchester and an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Nephrology at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital

Rachel graduated from Nottingham University Medical School in 1994. She completed clinical training in paediatric nephrology and began her research training in 2004 with a Wellcome Research Training Fellowship. She was then appointed to an NIHR Clinical Lectureship in 2007 and in 2008 she began working at the Wellcome Centre for Cell-Matrix Research in Manchester. In 2010 she was awarded a Wellcome Intermediate Clinical Fellowship to establish her research group followed by a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship in 2016. Rachel’s research is focused on understanding specialised structures called basement membranes, which are affected in many types of kidney disease including Alport syndrome. Rachel is Director of the Wellcome Centre for Cell-Matrix Research in Manchester and is leads the newly established Stoneygate and Kidney Research UK Alport Research Hub. She combines her academic work with clinical duties as a Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Rachel and her team study basement membranes, specialised matrix structures that surround and join tissue compartments. They investigate how basement membranes assemble, how they are maintained in a healthy state and how they are damaged in genetic or acquired human disease. A primary focus of the group is on basement membranes in the kidney, which are affected in the genetic condition Alport syndrome.

• Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
• British Association of Paediatric Nephrology
• Renal Association
• Academic Paediatrics Association GBI
• European Society of Peadiatric Nephrology
• American Society of Nephrology
• International Society of Nephrology

• BMedSci 1992
• BMBS 1994
• MRCP/MRCPCH 1997
• PhD 2008
• CCT Paediatrics/Paediatric Nephrology 2008
• FRCPCH 2010