Biography

I was awarded my B.Sc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of East Anglia in 1983. I moved to the Australian National University in Canberra to study for a Ph.D in Microbial Genetics (and learn to surf) under the supervision of Professors Frank Gibson and Graeme Cox, graduating in 1988. Following a postdoctoral position with Professor Rod Capaldi at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Eugene Oregon USA, where I gained my lifelong interest in mitochondria and mitochondrial disease, I successfully applied for a Lister Institute Fellowship in 1990. This allowed me to return to the UK, where I established my laboratory at Newcastle University to study the molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial gene expression and disease. I have been employed by Newcastle University since that date, being awarded a Personal Chair in 2000. From my close interaction with Professor Turnbull, the Mitochondrial Research Group was initiated. This has expanded enormously and led to formation of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research in 2012. I was appointed Director of the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences in 2012.

Research Focus

My postgraduate studies were on the function of the ATP synthase in eubacteria. It was therefore not such a large step to studying oxidative phosphorylation in man, which I started in the US in 1988. Mutations of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) were shown to cause disease and my main research topic since this time has been into determining the molecular mechanisms that underlie expression of this genome in man and searching for a cure for these disorders. This has proved to be particularly complicated, as it is not yet possible to transfect mammalian mitochondria in intact cells and there is no faithful reconstituted system for studying mitochondrial protein synthesis. The multi-copy nature of mtDNA has also led to a fascination with mitochondrial genetics and transmission. Studying pathogenic mutations, both in the nucleus and in mtDNA, that result in defects of mitochondrial gene expression, has helped us understand far more about these complex mechanisms and through these insights we hope to be able to offer treatments that are currently not available for the majority of patients with mitochondrial disease.