Dr Payne is an Associate Professor of Haematology at UCL Cancer Institute and Honorary consultant haematologist at University College London Hospital.  She received her medical degree from the University of Glasgow in 1997, with intercalated BSc in Psychology from University College London. She trained in Clinical Medicine in Glasgow and Oxford, and completed her haematology training in London. She undertook PhD studies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, studying mechanisms of disease in Diamond-Blackfan Anaemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. She received her PhD in 2011. 

She now leads the NHS Clinical service for MDS and Bone Marrow failure at UCLH (since 2012), and leads the National Cancer Research Institute for MDS. As part of this role she has developed national multidisciplinary special interest groups in early detection, clonal haematopoiesis, and VEXAS syndrome.  

Her main clinical interests are MDS, Bone Marrow Failure (with a particular interest in DIamond-Blackfan Anaemia  and neutropenias) and AML.  She also sees patients with general haematology concerns.