Staff Editors

PLOS is a tax-exempt, 501(c)3, nonprofit corporation. PLOS' overall revenues and funding information are listed in the PLOS Annual Update. The PLOS Medicine editors are paid a fixed salary (in particular, their salary is not linked to the number of papers published in the journal). Editors are required to declare all relevant competing interests and do not participate in the review of any paper for which they have a competing interest.

The competing interests statements were updated as stated below, and relate to activities over the previous 12 months. However, relevant competing interests from previous years will also be taken into account when deciding whether it is appropriate for an editor to handle a paper.

Helen Lumbard

Executive Editor
orcid.org/0000-0001-6664-2661

Email: hlumbard@plos.org

Helen holds a degree in Osteopathic Medicine, along with an MSc and PhD. Her doctoral research studied local dynamic stability and muscle morphology in patients with non-specific chronic low back pain, exploring the effects of spinal cord and medial nerve stimulation in collaboration with a team at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust. She has built a varied career spanning clinical practice, academic lecturing, research, and scholarly publishing. She is committed to open science and equity in publishing and is particularly interested in the role of medical journals in advancing research transparency, amplifying underrepresented voices, and influencing global health policy.

Competing interests
Updated June 2025: Helen contributes to a workplace pension scheme, where she does not determine or monitor the individual companies included in the scheme.

Alison Farrell

Senior Editor, Team Manager
orcid.org/0009-0005-5549-7020X

Email: afarrell@plos.org

Areas of responsibility include: infectious disease, health systems, gastroenterology and hepatology, respiratory medicine.

Alison received her BSc in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University, and her PhD in Biochemistry from University of California, San Francisco, where she studied cell cycle regulation. She pursued postdoctoral work on chemokines and their receptors at LeukoSite in Cambridge, MA, and on gene silencing and sirtuins in the Cell Biology Department at Harvard Medical School, before launching a career in science publishing at Nature Medicine in 2001. Alison is also a freelance consultant and is very excited to bring her experience as an editor of research on cancer, transplantation, infectious disease and the microbiome to PLOS Medicine. Alison joined PLOS Medicine in 2024 as a consultant Senior Editor, and took on the additional role of Team Manager in 2025.

Competing interests
Updated June 2025: Alison receives fees for consulting work, and has contributed to investments, where she does not determine or monitor the individual companies included in the scheme.

Andreia Cunha

Senior Editor
orcid.org/0009-0001-4072-173X

Email: acunha@plos.org

Areas of responsibility include: health and environment, public and global health, primary care.

Andreia studied Microbiology and Genetics (BSc) at the University of Lisbon, followed by a PhD in Immunology awarded by Nova University of Lisbon. In 2012, she joined Genome Medicine at BMC for her first editorial role where she stayed for five years in roles of increasing responsibility. She then moved to the Nature Portfolio to be a Senior Editor and Team Manager at Nature Communications, and more recently she was launch Chief Editor of Communications Medicine. Over the years she gained a broad range of experiences in open access publishing and has developed a keen interest in health equity, diversity and inclusivity. Andreia joined the PLOS Medicine team in 2025.

Competing interests
Updated June 2025: Andreia contributes to a workplace pension scheme, and has contributed to investments, where she does not determine or monitor the individual companies included in the scheme.

Suzanne De Bruijn

Associate Editor
orcid.org/0000-0002-7429-0448

Email: sbruijn@plos.org

Areas of responsibility include: cardiovascular disease, diabetes and endocrinology, mental health, neurology and dementia.

Suzanne studied biomolecular life sciences in Amsterdam, followed by a PhD in plant molecular development and evolution in Wageningen. She then moved to the UK for a postdoc in epigenetics, during which she explored an editorial career. She was an Assistant features Editor for The Plant Cell and did an internship with PLOS Biology in 2022. She has since worked for PLOS Biology as a freelancer and an Associate Editor, before joining the PLOS Medicine team in 2024.

Competing interests
Updated June 2025: Suzanne contributes to a workplace pension scheme, where she does not determine or monitor the individual companies included in the scheme.

Louise Gaynor-Brook

Senior Editor
orcid.org/0000-0002-6617-3110

Email: lgaynor@plos.org

Areas of responsibility include: maternal and child health, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, aging and multimorbidity, genetics and genomics, machine learning and digital health.

Louise received her undergraduate degree in Medicine (MBBS) from King’s College London in 2010, including an intercalated degree (BSc) in Physiology (Maternal and Fetal Health). Louise continued her keen academic interest in obstetrics to study the immunogenetic regulation of uterine Natural Killer cell function in pregnancy, and received a PhD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of Cambridge in 2017. Following her graduate degree, Louise moved into health policy at the PHG Foundation, where she conducted in-depth analyses of biomedical technologies and international policies relating to preventive and personalized healthcare. Louise joined PLOS Medicine in 2019.

Competing interests
Updated June 2025: Louise contributes to a workplace pension scheme, where she does not determine or monitor the individual companies included in the scheme.

Daniel Routledge

Senior Editor, Front Section
orcid.org/0000-0002-8259-349X

Email: droutledge@plos.org

Areas of responsibility include: magazine content across all of the health sciences.

Dan was awarded a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Southampton in 2018, before going on to complete his PhD in Cell Biology at the University of Exeter, where his research focused on Wnt trafficking and signaling in gastric cancer cells. Dan moved into the publishing world after his PhD, joining The Company of Biologists as a Cross-title Reviews Editor in 2022, where he worked on 'front section’ content primarily across the journals Development, Journal of Cell Science, and Disease Models & Mechanisms. He then joined the PLOS Biology team in August 2024 as the Locum Front Section Senior Editor, before moving across to PLOS Medicine in April 2025.

Competing interests
Updated June 2025: Dan contributes to a workplace pension scheme, where he does not determine or monitor the individual companies included in the scheme.

Katarzyna Starowicz

Associate Editor
orcid.org/0000-0002-9144-8630

Email: kstarowicz@plos.org

Areas of responsibility include: Aging and Multimorbidity, Clinical Medicine, Cancer, Machine Learning and Digital Health.

Katarzyna (Kasia) studied Biology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, before completing a PhD in Molecular Biosciences at the Autonomous University of Madrid, supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN fellowship (PITN-GA-2011-289611-HEM_ID). She subsequently moved to the UK to undertake postdoctoral research at the University of Birmingham, where she investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying BRCA1-deficient breast and ovarian cancers. In 2023, she joined adthera bio in Birmingham as a Process and Analytical Development Scientist, specialising in cell and gene therapies. Kasia joined the PLOS Medicine team in November 2025.

Competing interests
Updated April 2026: Kasia contributes to a workplace pension scheme, where she does not determine or monitor the individual companies included in the scheme.