Katie was born in Liverpool and studied Medicine at Dundee University. She and her husband Jimmy Steele moved to Newcastle University in 1989, where Katie joined the burgeoning Department of Human Genetics just as the Human Genome Project was changing the face of the speciality. Her special interest was neuromuscular genetics and via a series of MRC fellowships she was appointed to a personal chair in 2001. Katie benefitted from a legacy of excellence in muscular dystrophy care and research in Newcastle under the previous leadership of Lord John Walton and Dr David Gardner Medwin, and given the new opportunities afforded by the growth in molecular genetic testing and subsequently gene based therapy development grew a new team of clinicians and basic and applied researchers now consolidated as the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre (JWMDRC). This team provides care for patients with neuromuscular conditions in the North East of England and nationally via the Highly Specialised Service for limb girdle muscular dystrophies. Katie was a co-lead on an EU funded Network of Excellence TREAT-NMD which led the development of trial readiness for neuromuscular conditions and which continues as an international authority in this area. The JWMDRC is a major hub for clinical trials and a major trainer of new clinicians and researchers in these key areas.
Katie’s interest in neuromuscular diseases and in particular the organisation of care and research networking led her to become involved in policy making for rare diseases more generally at national and international level and she served on the EU committee of experts in rare diseases, including as Vice-Chair. She was involved in determining the policy framework for the establishment of European Reference Networks for Rare Diseases and their subsequent successful implementation.
Katie retired early following the death of her husband from a glioblastoma in 2017. Since then she has become involved in the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission and became its Vice-Chair in 2022. In this capacity she is involved in the designation of centres of excellence for brain tumour care and the establishment of the Tessa Jowell Academy, a platform of more than 600 UK based clinicians involved in the delivery of care to people with brain tumours and their families.
