Marital status:            Divorced

Nationality:                 British

Date of Birth:              April 5^th., 1952

1963 – 1971 King Edward VI Royal Grammar School, Guildford,  Surrey U.K.

1971 – 1974 BSc. Botany, Bedford College, London University

1977 – 1983 D.Phil. (part time) University of Sussex

1974 – 1976 Electron Microscope (EM) Technician, Bedford College, London University

1976 – Present Initially as EM Research Technician and presently as Head of Electron Microscope Division, The Sussex Centre for Advanced Microscopy, Life Sciences, University of Sussex.

Supervision of 3^rd. Year Undergraduate Project students: I presently supervise 2-4 students annually.

BSMS 3rd Year Neurobiology: module Experimental Medicine; section 'Alzheimer's Disease'.

Topics in Genetic Manipulation and Molecular Cell Biology: Electron Microscopy.

External Teaching on behalf of the School: I have visited Nairobi University, Kenya three times in a teaching capacity. On one of  these three visits I was solely responsible for setting-up and teaching an EM course.

Experience/Expertise: I have over 30 years experience as a working research biological electron microscopist and have expertise in the following areas: (SEM) routine morphological studies; cryo-preparation and/or elemental analysis; (TEM) ultrastructural investigations; digital image acquisition and image/morphometric analysis; negative staining of particulate samples; enzyme cytochemistry; and immunogold labelling methodologies. I have also evaluated existing and developed new  procedures to resolve research needs.

Collaborative Projects within the School: I have collaborated extensively with colleagues within the School over the years and co-authored papers in several different areas of research (some as first author: see publications below).

Personal Research: I have previously been invited to contribute a chapter for a book in the Methods in Molecular Biology Series and written other independent book contributions, journal articles and an on-line review paper (see below). I have also been a contributing scientist twice in the last three Research Assessment Exercises.  My current ongoing research is into the involvement of Pin1 protein in the neurodegenerative brain disorders.

External Collaborations: I have previously collaborated with colleagues from Kenya, Israel, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Nigeria and Belgium and presently collaborate with a neuropathologist at the Washington University School of Medicine, USA

1997     EC INCO-DC Part C: Scientific and technological co-operation with developing countries (1997 Call): (Co-applicant – with colleagues from Kenya, Wales and France) “Promotion of shrimp farming in East Africa by identification and development of affordable aquafeeds using local invertebrate and floral resources and enhancement of feed utilisation by exogenous enzymes”. 

2000     Alzheimer’s Society 3-Year Project Grant (£173,804): (Principal Investigator) “The role of the peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase protein Pin1 in Alzheimer’s disease, especially its interaction with neurofilament and tau protein during cytoskeletal breakdown and neurofibrillary tangle formation and its involvement in cell death.”

2000     Wellcome Trust 3-Year Project Grant (£244,337): (Principal Investigator) “Charting and testing the consequences of PPIase protein Pin1 relocation and depletion in  neurons affected by the tauopathies, especially in regard to a possibly unifying contribution to cell death in this class of neurodegenerative disease.”

2003     Alzheimer's Society 18-month Project Grant (£85,000): (Principal Investigator) "Understanding neurofilament aggregation in 'Dementia with Neurofilament Inclusions"

2005     MRC Project Grant (£200,000): (Principal Investigator) "Development of a Novel Immunofluorescence/FLIM-FRET analysis system to study Pin1 protein interactions in postmortem brain tissue from the Tauopathy class of neurdegenerative diseases".

Wellcome Trust 3-Year Project Grant of £244,337 (Oct 2002-Oct 2005): I am the Principal Investigator on this recently-awarded grant entitled: “Charting and testing the consequences of PPIase protein Pin1 relocation and depletion in  neurons affected by the tauopathies, especially in regard to a possibly unifying contribution to cell death in this class of neurodegenerative disease.” The funding includes provision for a Research Assistant and an EM technician.

The EM and FACS Lab website, which I started putting together in late 1997, and have since upgraded and developed into a very comprehensive site, serves as - among other uses - an educational resource for all from older schoolchildren to those at postgraduate level.

Provision of images, etc.: I have contributed EM images to books and have had many requests (from individuals and online teaching resource sites) to use – or to link up to – the images in the galleries of the lab website.

Alzheimer’s Disease and the Frontotemporal Dementias: a review with particular reference to Pin1 protein is a website in the form of an online review of my personal research area. This now attracts approaching 1000 hits a month and it has helped me to find collaborators in my research (e.g. Janssen, as mentioned above) and probably also to obtain funding.

Media Coverage: Articles on my research have appeared in the Bulletin and the Argus and I have been interviewed for two Southern Counties Radio programmes.

I put together the EM Services for Industry website to attract potential external contract work to the EM Lab.

Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society.

Member of the Alzheimer’s Society.

I am a referee for the Journal Cells, Tissues, Organs.

Music (I play the tenor sax) and sport (in general, but especially football and cricket). I also like to try and keep abreast of world current affairs.

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