I was born in Cardiff and graduated in Pharmacology from Portsmouth in 1990. I then spent four years in the mid-lands and Kent as a PhD student at Aston University and Welcome Research Laboratories before joining Sandoz Pharmaceuticals as a Clinical Research Associate. I returned to Portsmouth in 1997 as a Senior Lecturer, having completed 3 years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario, where I conducted research into inflammatory bowel disease.

I was promoted to Principal Lecturer in 2005 and was the Course Leader for BSc (Hons) Pharmacology programme between 2003 and 2013. I am currently the Science Faculty International Coordinator and the Head of Pharmacology.

I am the Head of the Gastrointestinal Pharmacology Group and my overarching research interest has focussed on gastrointestinal dysfunction in both the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract. Specifically I am interested in the relationship between enteric glia and intestinal pathologies ranging from inflammation to motility dysfunction. I have previously explored cell signalling within the gastric epithelium and the roles that nitric oxide, protein kinase and dystrophin play in this process.