I completed my BSc (Hons) and PhD in Chemistry at the University of Bristol. My PhD (1995) was supervised by Professor Tom Simpson where I completed the first NMR structure of a protein (actinorhodin ACP) using 500 and 600 MHz homonuclear NNR spectra (never ever again). Actually I did then go on to this again at the University of Alberta, Canada where I completed post-doctoral studies with Professor brian Sykes. During my three years in Canada we solved numerous NMR structures of chemokines, coiled coils, peptides and bacterial surface proteins.

My group's work has centred around the use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study protein structure and function. The most high profile of these are based in areas such as cancer, antibiotics and structure aided drug design that are of central importance to the well being of today's society. A major highlight of our recent work has been the solution NMR structure of the domain 11 from the Insulin Growth factor receptor 2 and its interaction with IGF2. This milestone work has paved the way for CRUK and CRT funding (with Prof. Bass Hassan, University of Oxford) and it is an important step along the way to developing a therapeutic receptor to be used in the treatment of several different cancers. This work is currently the major theme within my laboratory alongside the application of NMR for screening potential small ligands for proteins of pharmaceutical interest (funded by UCB).