Green was made a
Cancer Research UK Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge in 2008.[6] She held a Kaye Research Fellowship at
Christ's College, Cambridge.[2] Her research considered the mechanisms of genome replication at the genetic and epigenetic levels.[6] During this replication process the mutations that are responsible for
cancer can occur, or be fixed. Understanding the process that underpins this replication, and how cells control this replication, allows Green to better understand the development of cancer.[6][7]
In 2012 Green moved to the
University of Oxford, where she joined the
Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics. Here Green expanded her work in genomics to encompass the genetic and epigenetic stability of DNA.[8] Green was made Monsanto Senior Research Fellow at
Exeter College, Oxford in 2017.[9] She leads the core facility in Chromosome Dynamics at the Wellcome Centre.[10]
During the
COVID-19 pandemic Green was part of the
Jenner Institute team who developed a
coronavirus disease vaccine.[11] The Jenner Institute vaccination platform had been prepared for the
MERS and
SARS outbreaks, and so was ready to respond quickly to the emerging disease.[9] Green worked with
Sarah Gilbert on the production of the
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination.[12] The team started research in January 2020, and managed to identify a chimpanzee
adenovirus vector (ChAdOx) that generated a strong immune response to
SARS-CoV-2.[12] They used the SARS-CoV-2 genome that had beens sequenced by researchers in
Wuhan. The adenovirus cannot replicate, so does not cause further infection, and instead acts as a vector to transfer the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.[9] The spike protein, an external protein that enables the virus to enter cells, is responsible for the immune system response. In early April the team were awarded £22 million of funding from the
Government of the United Kingdom to run human trials.[12] The vaccine underwent clinical trials in
Oxford in April 2020, which were successful.[13] On 30 December 2020, the vaccine was approved for use in the UK.[14] More than 3billion doses of the vaccine were supplied to countries worldwide.[15]
In 2021, Green and Sarah Gilbert published Vaxxers: the inside story of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and the race against the virus.[16][17]
Gilbert, Sarah; Green, Catherine (2021). Vaxxers: the inside story of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and the race against the virus. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
ISBN9781529369854.