With origins in Hackney (London), I have the honour of being a true Cockney. I am currently Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Dundee in Scotland and at the Institute of Parasitology, Ceske Budejovice in  the  Czech Republic. I have authored more than 270 research articles, 300 abstracts, have an h-factor of 69 and D-factor of 73, with over 16 000 citations and an unbroken thirty two year publication record. I was awarded the British Society for Parasitology C.A. Wright medal in 2010 for recognition of outstanding contributions to parasitology. I have principally exploited the parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma brucei and efforts to leverage genomics and proteomics resources to provide insights into virulence mechanisms and basic cell biology, with specific interests in protein transport systems and nuclear organisation. I also have interests in bioinformatics, graphic design, functional genomics and eukaryotic evolutionary biology.

     I was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and awarded first-class honours in Biochemistry, remaining at Oxford for my doctoral studies on glycoprotein structure and function. My postdoctoral career was initially at the Rockefeller University in New York describing glycosylphosphatidylinositol lipid biosynthesis and structure, with a further period in California at Stanford University, analysing protist surface protein families and characterising the endomembrane systems of trypanosomes. In 1994 I established a research group at Imperial College London, moving to the University of Cambridge in 2005 and the University of Dundee in 2013. The laboratory in Dundee will close in a few years and consequently I am no longer seeking new postgraduate doctoral students.

     I review for many journals and granting agencies and am Chief Speciality Editor for Molecular and Cellular topics in Frontiers in Parasitology. I have served on the Medical Research Council Infection and Immunity Board, Wellcome Trust Expert Reading Group, Polish National Science Centre grants council, as an external advisor at Charles University, the council of the British Society for Parasitology, and as a board member for CamPOD, a charity in Cambridge. I collaborate with colleagues in the UK, EU, Africa, Asia, North and South America. I currently live in Central Edinburgh with my partner, three tabbies and a music/photography studio.