I trained in Medicine in Glasgow (MBChB 1997 and MRCP 2000), and moved to Edinburgh to undertake my specialty training and PhD work in IBD (2003-2008). I was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship award (2009-2015). During this time, I trained under Balfour Sartor in University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA (2009-2010) focusing on mucosal immunology in IBD, and moved to the MRC Centre for Inflammation Research in 2011. I continue to care for individuals with IBD at the Western General Hospital and I lead the Edinburgh IBD Science Group (@Edin_IBDScience), a multidisciplinary group of researchers and scientists in Edinburgh with an aim to translate our scientific work into new treatments in IBD. Recent developments include the UK-wide multicentre RCT MARVEL study on mitochondrial anti-oxidant therapy in Ulcerative Colitis; and the MUSIC Crohn’s cohort study into mitochondrial DAMPs and mucosal healing.

Major mechanistic themes in IBD are:

1. Gut derived mucosal damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs)

2. Mitochondrial dysfunction and ROS-signalling

3. Metabolic programing of the mucosal immune response

4. Active reparative mechanisms with novel targets focused on inflammatory monocytes-macrophage and T-cell trafficking