Profile

I live near Manchester Piccadilly train station with my girlfriend of six years, who is also a PhD researcher at the University of Manchester (she is a biologist who works with fruit flies). I am a season ticket holder at Manchester United and go to every home game – I sit near the front of the famous Stretford End and you can just about see me on TV! Last year I ran the Manchester 10K for the Michael Carrick foundation (he is the assistant manager of Manchester United – see picture!)

I am a ‘Widening Participation Fellow’ at the University of Manchester, which means I spend a lot of time working with schools (from primary right up to sixth form) delivering workshops, science fair activities as well as helping with things like the EPQ.

I also help train undergraduate pharmacists at the University by ‘demonstrating’ in teaching laboratories and I was lucky enough to be awarded the Doctoral Academy’s ‘Outstanding Graduate teaching Assistant Award’ in 2020.

My pronouns are he/his.

I make drugs.

Or at least I try to. It is highly unlikely that I will ever create a new drug that people can buy at the pharmacy – because it is very difficult, very time consuming and very expensive to get a drug from the laboratory to the pharmacy shelves. But I can dream!

I am part of a group of scientists at the University of Manchester, called the BIG. That stands for Brain Inflame Group! We don’t put out fires in people’s brains – but we are interested in inflammation.

Inflammation is normally a very good thing in the body – it is a natural response to harmful things like germs (pathogens). But in some diseases, too much inflammation can lead to more harm than good – which is why I am trying to make drugs to target inflammation!