Blog: Women Leading Global Health: Professor Sue Welburn OBE and the Research That Changed a Disease

Professor Welburn’s career has always been rooted in a global outlook. Early in her professional life she worked in the Tsetse Research Laboratories in Bristol, part of the University of Bristol, where the focus was firmly on solving problems that crossed borders. At the time, the laboratory was tackling sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease that affects communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. The experience left a deep impression.

From the outset, she recalls, it was clear that such challenges could never be solved in isolation. “These problems were bigger than one person could solve,” she says. “You needed networks of individuals working together to make progress.” That philosophy - science as a shared, international endeavour - has guided her work ever since.

Over more than three decades, Professor Welburn’s research has bridged laboratory science, fieldwork and long-standing partnerships with researchers, communities and institutions across Africa and beyond. Her work sits at the intersection of human, animal and environmental health, a perspective now widely recognised as the “One Health” approach. Long before the term became widely used, she understood that controlling diseases such as sleeping sickness required scientists to look beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Sleeping sickness is a complex disease. It is transmitted by the tsetse fly, can involve animal reservoirs such as cattle, and is influenced by environmental conditions and human behaviour. Understanding it requires a combination of molecular biology and epidemiology, combined with veterinary science, climate science and social research. “You can’t manage the disease by approaching it from a single perspective,” she explains. “You have to look at the whole system and identify the weakness that allows you to control it.”

This interdisciplinary mindset has produced breakthroughs that have reshaped how the disease is understood and controlled. One of the most striking discoveries in her research revealed that the ability of the parasite to infect humans could be traced to a single gene - an insight made possible by advances in molecular biology. Another pivotal moment came from an unexpected source: a late-night television programme about programmed cell death that sparked an experiment demonstrating how parasite survival in tsetse flies could be dramatically altered.

A major part of Professor Welburn’s work has centred on a deceptively simple idea: treating cattle to eliminate the parasites that can infect humans. By addressing the animal reservoir of the disease, researchers and public health teams have been able to dramatically reduce transmission in affected regions.

Such moments of scientific insight are rarely solitary. Behind them lies a collective effort spanning laboratories, countries and generations of researchers. Professor Welburn has supervised more than 65 PhD and master’s students during her career, each contributing to the wider goal of controlling and ultimately eliminating neglected tropical diseases.

For early-career researchers, she believes the most valuable support a mentor can offer is confidence building. “Young people often arrive in science not really knowing what the career will look like,” she says. Research projects can fail, funding can be uncertain and the path ahead is rarely clear. What students need most, she argues, is a supervisor who believes in them and communicates that belief consistently.

That commitment extends well beyond the duration of a degree. “Universities are communities,” she says. “The people you meet during your time at university will help shape your career long after you leave.” Mentorship, in her view, is not temporary but enduring—“students for life,” as she puts it. She sees the relationship as truly symbiotic: as she guides and supports her students, she learns from their fresh perspectives, curiosity, and creativity, strengthening her own work and the research community as a whole.

Her own journey into science was far from straightforward. She was the first person in her family to attend university, and persuading her parents to support that decision was not easy. At the time, they hoped she might pursue a more conventional career path. The turning point came when she chose a degree programme that included a year in industry—an element that reassured her family that higher education might lead to a stable profession.

Looking back, that experience shaped her leadership style. Having had to argue for her own opportunities, she became acutely aware that many young researchers -particularly women -must work hard to be heard and recognised. Striking the right balance, she says, can be challenging: too forceful and one risks being labelled aggressive; too quiet and one may be overlooked.

For Professor Welburn, the answer lies in recognising that leadership does not have a single model. Effective scientific leadership can take many forms, and institutions benefit when they recognise different styles and approaches.

Today, that philosophy is reflected in her leadership of the Zhejiang University–University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE), where she leads the largest research and teaching institute partnership that the University of Edinburgh operates overseas. The institute brings together expertise from two world-class universities to deliver innovative teaching and research in the biomedical sciences, creating opportunities for students and academics to collaborate across borders.

Her role at ZJE represents the culmination of an internationally focused career. It reflects her belief that the future of science lies in strong international partnerships and environments where interdisciplinary collaboration can flourish. For students and early career researchers, institutions such as ZJE provide a space where global challenges can be explored collectively, with access to diverse expertise and perspectives.

The research landscape itself has also changed. Early in her career, scientists often had access to institutional funding that allowed them to explore ideas before seeking grants. Today, funding is more competitive and researchers are frequently judged by their most recent grant success. While competition can drive excellence, she worries that it may discourage the kind of exploratory research that leads to unexpected discoveries.

In 2025 Professor Welburn was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to disease elimination, particularly human sleeping sickness. She is quick to emphasise that the honour reflects a collective effort.

“Of course, the OBE was awarded to me,” she says, “but it really recognises the contribution of a huge number of people.” From doctoral students and international partners to organisations such as the World Health Organization, the Wellcome Trust, and even pharmaceutical companies the work has been sustained by an extraordinary network of collaborators.

The impact is felt most clearly in the communities affected by the disease. In countries such as Uganda, where sleeping sickness once devastated families and entire regions, the progress towards elimination represents a profound shift. New treatments currently in development -including promising oral drugs -offer further hope that the disease may one day disappear entirely.

On International Women’s Day, Professor Welburn reflects candidly on what it still takes for women to succeed in science. Progress has been made, she says. Universities are increasingly aware of the importance of work–life balance, and policies supporting childcare and family responsibilities are improving. Yet challenges remain.

Her advice to women considering careers in research is both realistic and encouraging. Science can be demanding, competitive and occasionally unforgiving. But it is also a field driven by curiosity, collaboration and the chance to make a tangible difference in the world.

“If you want to be a scientist,” she notes, “you have to fight for your right to party.”

The phrase may be light-hearted, but the message behind it is serious. Progress in science—like progress in society - depends on people who are willing to pursue ideas, support one another and challenge the limits of what is possible. Professor Welburn’s career stands as a powerful reminder that when science is shared, collaborative and inclusive, its impact can reach far beyond the laboratory.