Graduated as a vet from the R(D)SVS, University of Edinburgh, in 2005 and stayed on to complete a PhD studying host immune responses to parasites in 2010. A varied decade as a post-doc included studies of nutritional influences on neuroendocrine development, veterinary dermatology and the relationship between the gut microbiome, the immune system and cancer. Returned to Edinburgh in 2020 to join Christine Tait-Burkard’s research group studying commercially important viruses in pigs, and contributed to the group’s work on Covid-19 during the 2020 pandemic.