Catherine E. Willoughby, PhD is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Translational Research in Hepatic Oncology Laboratory led by Professor Josep M. Llovet. She has a strong interest and experience in the development and preclinical evaluation of novel therapeutic approaches for hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently, she is funded by a Sara Borrell Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII) and the European Social Fund (FSE).

Dr Willoughby was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cancer Drug Discovery at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research (NICR), Newcastle University, UK. She obtained her PhD at Newcastle University, UK, with a thesis entitled 'Preclinical modelling of hepatocellular carcinoma and novel strategies for therapeutic intervention' which was funded by a competitive studentship awarded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK). She obtained a Masters degree in Cancer at Newcastle University and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Medical Biochemistry with Industrial Experience from the University of Manchester. During her Bachelor's degree, Dr Willoughby worked for one year with Sanofi Genzyme as an industrial placement student, and also with Medis Actavis for four summers as a scholarship student.

Dr Willoughby has given poster and oral presentations at several international conferences and is a reviewer for the journals Clinical Cancer Research and Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology. She has received funding and awards from The Biochemical Society, European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), British Association for Cancer Research (BACR) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK).

Regarding teaching, Dr Willoughby currently lectures for the Official Master in Translational Medicine at the University of Barcelona. She has also been involved in the teaching, training and mentoring of 15 Bachelors, Masters and PhD students. With respect to scientific communication and outreach, she has given many presentations, laboratory tours and demonstrations as a scientific outreach volunteer with CRUK, and was the NICR Postgraduate Student Representative in 2017. Additionally, she organised the 2nd Newcastle University Postgraduate Cancer Conference, and co-ordinated and chaired Young Researchers' Forums with visiting academics at the NICR. She currently leads the Young Investigator’s Committee of the HUNTER HCC Consortium.

Dr Willoughby is a member of the following scientific societies: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA), and is also an EACR Ambassador.