Professor Näthke was born in Germany where she completed her primary and secondary education. For her undergraduate training she moved to San Jose State University in California where she completed a BSc in Biochemistry. She obtained her PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from University of California San Francisco where. Subsequently she pursued postdoctoral training at Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. She joined the faculty at the University of Dundee in 1998 where she is currently the Professor of Epithelial Biology in the Division of Cell and Developmental Biology.

Professor Näthke’s research aims to understand the earliest changes in gut tissue that accompany initiation and progression of tumours. Work in her laboratory uses of a variety of experimental systems and techniques from single cells to whole tissue, and isolated proteins to high-resolution imaging of normal and tumour tissue. She has particular expertise in the biochemistry and cell biology of the adenomatous polyposis coli protein, which is mutated in almost all colorectal cancers.