Currently, I am an Associate Professor in Molecular Bacteriology at the Royal Veterinary College. I completed a BSc in Genetics at the University of Swansea (1992) and a PhD in Antimicrobial Resistance in Escherichia coli at the University of Bristol (1996). In 2000, I began working with bacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) the causative agents of tuberculosis (TB), and have continued to work with these pathogens. I am trying to understand how members of the MTBC adapt in order to survive within the host for extended periods of time and I have a long-standing interest in mechanisms of gene regulation in bacteria. More recently, I have used whole genome fitness screening to identify virulence factors/genes required for optimal survival of Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine TB, in cattle. My work has been supported by The Royal Society, The International Veterinary Vaccinology Network, the BBSRC and Defra. Currently, my work is funded by the BBSRC via the ERA-NET ICRAD co-funded opportunity. I am a member of a multi-disciplinary TB specialist interest group at the RVC (Tuberculosis (rvc.ac.uk)) Details of projects and outputs can be found here - https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3277-3035