Dr Claire Richards is a Lecturer in Biotechnology within the School of Life Sciences at UTS. 

In this role, Claire is conducting postdoctoral research within the Cardio-Obestetrics Research Group under the leadership of A/Prof Lana McClements.

Claire is also the Subject Coordinator for Medical Biotechnology and Biobusiness, 3rd year specialist subjects within Biotechnology undergraduate degrees at UTS.

Claire is passionate about:

• Improving health outcomes for women and their babies during pregnancy.
• Growing cells in 3D to reduce reliance on animal testing
• Sharing science with all people (through science communication, engagement and education), especially girls
• Harnessing the power and beauty of microscopes to solve real-world problems
• Supporting other women in STEM

Claire completed her PhD in 2024. Her PhD focused on understanding how the placenta develops early in pregnancy and why it becomes dysfunctional in a serious complication, preeclampsia. Claire is the first in the world to bioprint placental organoids ('mini-placentas').

Claire used other cutting-edge technologies like organ-on-a-chip microfluidics to make alternate miniature placenta models. Claire also used CRISPR gene editing to study the role of a specific gene, fkbpl, in placental development. This work has also progressed to testing stem cell-based treatments for preeclampsia.

Claire is an advanced fluorescence microscope user within the Microbial Imaging Facility, assuming the role of SuperUser in 2023.