Dr Helen Radford is the Associate Director of Operations: Research, at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research, University of Leeds. Helen is a Registered General Nurse with over 20 years’ experience in designing, conducting, and delivering academic and commercial clinical research studies.

Helen has held clinical research positions in the NHS (Research Nurse, Clinical Trials Manager, Operational & Scientific Manager, NIHR Leeds MIC Director of Operations, NIHR Leeds CRF Manager), Industry (Senior Project Manager Phase I-IIA) and Higher Educational Institutes (Project Manager/Lead Nurse). In the NHS, Helen has extensive experience in clinical drug development studies (Phase I-IV: First in Human, proof of concept, singular and multiple ascending dose designs), interventional medical devices and observational studies (Phase II-IV).

In 2015, Helen completed her Biomedical Science PhD which investigated individual’s clinical response to codeine, an analgesic drug which is reliant on biotransformation by the CYP2D6 enzyme to the active compound morphine for analgesic efficacy. Through a series of research studies, she developed a biomedical model to predict long term codeine response using genotyping and measuring urine codeine metabolites to enable healthcare professionals to objectively assess CYP2D6 function at the point of care and in essence provide a personalised treatment plan. She is a manuscript reviewer for Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, the official journal of the International Neuromodulation Society. Her research collaborations have resulted in 17 co-authored publications disseminating independent research in leading professional journals plus she has presented 15 abstracts at national and international conferences.

Helen joined the UKCRFN in 2020 as a member of the CRF Managers group. In 2023 Helen was appointed Deputy Lead of Work Package 2, Strategic Leadership and became the WP2 Lead in 2024.