Her clinical research is in conducting early phase trials in novel cancer therapeutics for people with advanced malignancies.

[4] In 2004 she received a PhD (as CRUK Clinical Fellow) in fruit fly genetics in the laboratory of Prof David Glover at Cambridge University[4] After Blagden completed her medical training and subsequent specialist training in Medical Oncology at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and the Royal Marsden Hospital she went on to hold a Clinical Fellowship at the Institute of Cancer Research's Drug Development Unit.

While at Imperial, Blagden established a laboratory studying the dysregulation of mRNA translation in cancer.

This group was the first to describe the human gene LARP1 and identify it as an RNA binding protein involved in ovarian cancer.

[6] In 2015 Blagden founded RNA Guardian a company dedicated to researching early cancer biomarkers.