Kirsten Trayner
Post-doctoral Research Fellow
School of Health and Life Sciences
Dr Kirsten Trayner graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BSc (Hons) in Immunology in 2014. She went on to complete a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the University of Edinburgh in 2016. After completing her master's, Kirsten joined the Blood-borne Virus and Sexually Transmitted Infections team at NHS Public Health Scotland (PHS) from 2016-2017.
Kirsten completed her PhD at GCU from 2018 – 2021. Kirsten’s PhD was focused on understanding the epidemiology of, and response to high levels of drug-related harm among people who inject drugs in Scotland. A large proportion of her PhD was dedicated to the largest documented outbreak of HIV among people who inject drugs in over 30 years, concentrated in Glasgow.
Kirsten currently holds a Post-doctoral Research Fellow position at GCU in the Blood-borne Virus Research team and is a member of the Substance Use research team. She has also held an Honorary Epidemiologist position at PHS since 2018. Her principal research interests are the epidemiology of drug-related harms (HIV, Hepatitis C (HCV) and overdose) and harm reduction interventions and policy that can be implemented to improve the health and wellbeing of people who use drugs.
Kirsten has led and contributed to high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles. Her research has fed into local and national public health policy and practice, including informing public health responses to Glasgow’s ongoing HIV outbreak, HIV and HCV elimination, proposals to establish drug consumption rooms in the UK, and national recovery plans from the COVID-19 pandemic.