About
I am currently the Chair of Neurobiology at the University of Liverpool. Prior to this, I was at the University of Edinburgh, the MRC Brain Metabolism (Edinburgh) and the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda). Our research focus is the regulation of transcription in a tissue-specific and stimulus-inducible manner with a particular interest in the role of repetitive DNA, in particular, retrotransposons both as biomarkers and mechanistically underpinning CNS disease progression and risk. Our recent work has focused on Motor Neurone and Parkinson’s Disease.
We have an integrated research program to improve our understanding of the aetiology and pathophysiology of multifactorial CNS disorders to improve diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy utilizing the latest developments in genomic analysis. We aim to understand how nature and nurture combine to shape the individual and our well-being and how the environment; psychological, physiological, chemical, pathogen and age alter that balance resulting in clinical symptoms.
I am an Associate Member of the MRC Social Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry at Kings College London and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Perron Institute, Perth, Australia. I am the Patron of the Wirral Motor Neurone Disease Association Group