Since 2017: PI, Univ. of Glasgow; since 2002: PI, Univ. of Manchester; 1999-2002: WT Research Fellow, Dept of Zoology, Univ. of Oxford; 1997-99: ANRS Research Fellow, Marseilles; 1996-97: postdoc, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham; 1993-96: PhD in Genetics, Univ. of Nottingham; 1992-93: 1st year of PhD, Trinity College Dublin (lab relocated to Nottingham); 1987-91: BSc, Zoology honours, Univ. of Edinburgh.

Computational Biology and Molecular Evolution

We focus on understanding the genetics and organisation of the human molecular system with a view to advancing knowledge of disease be it due to infection (particularly by viruses) or genome mutations. Evolution is what explains life and its many forms, and so its study is of central importance to understanding molecular systems and how they coevolve, e.g., molecular interactions, viruses with either their bacterial or eukaryote hosts, single-celled versus multi-cellular life etc. Examples of projects include: viral diversity & evolution, viral-host interaction networks, metagenomics & the virome, human disease & mutation, viral analysis workflows and digital signal processing for NGS data.

My research is primarily focussed on computational biology and molecular evolution. Evolution is what explains life and its many forms, and so its study is of central importance in biological research. Molecular evolution is the study of evolution at the molecular level from genes to genomes to systems biology, while computational biology is the data-focussed use of computers in biological research to address analytical and theoretical questions/hypotheses. My lab focuses on two broad research areas: (1) infectious disease, particularly as a result of viruses such as HIV-1, and (2) comparative genomics/network biology and how an evolutionary perspective informs our understanding of functional evolution and disease biology.