During my PhD in the School of Medicine (UEA) with Dr Silke Schelenz, I focused on understanding how soluble immune receptors found in the lungs and bloodstream could recognise and protect against pathogenic fungi. Following my PhD, I made the move north to sunny Aberdeen and under the guidance of Prof. Gordon Brown helped characterise the first receptor for melanin. Here, we found that this receptor was critical for antifungal immunity in humans and mice. I made a return to UEA in 2016 where I have focused on characterising novel allosteric modulators of purinergic receptors and understanding their biological roles (Dr. Leanne Stokes and Prof. Samuel Fountain). I have since recently been appointed as Lecturer in Pharmacology in the School of Pharmacy where I will endeavour to understand how the human body detects and responds to invasion by fungal pathogens, identify novel drug targets to overcome antifungal resistance, and explore how to prevent inflammation-driven diseases.

My experience is widely varied and encompasses host-microbe interactions, microbial genomics, nucleic acids biology, biophysics, drug discovery, cell death, cardiovascular biology, immune cell receptors, in-silico modelling, bioinformatics, and chemical biology. 

• Lecturer of Pharmacology, University of East Anglia (2022 - present)
• Senior Research Associate (BHF), University of East Anglia (2020 - 2022)
• Senior Research Associate (BBSRC), University of East Anglia (2016 - 2019)
• Research Associate (Wellcome Trust), University of Aberdeen (2014 - 2016)
• PhD in Biomedical Sciences, University of East Anglia (2011 - 2015)
• BSc (Hons) Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of East Anglia (2008 - 2011)

• Associate Editor Critical Reviews in Microbiology (2020 - Present)
• Associate Editor Virulence (2022 - Present)
• Freelance Manuscript Copyeditor (2020 - Present)
• Guest Editor Frontiers in Immunology (2021-2022)
• Guest Editor Frontiers in Aging (2022-Present)