Biography
Associate Professor in microbiology and Deputy lead of the Centre for Biomedicine and Global Health within the School of Applied Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University.
I started my academic career as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Pathology at Edinburgh University where I worked in the areas of liver cancer and transplantation failure. It was here that I developed a keen interest in understanding the underlying causes of disease pathogenesis. I then moved to the Moredun Research Institute where I worked first as a Postdoctoral scientist and then as as Senior Postdoctoral Scientist focusing my research into the effects and impacts of bacterial infections which cause reproductive complications in both humans and livestock.
I co-lead of the Global research alliance Animal Health and Greenhouse Gas Intensity Network and I am a Trustee of the British Society for Animal Science. I hold memberships of Edinburgh Infectious Diseases, the hub for infectious disease research in Edinburgh, the Society for Reproduction and Fertility, Microbiology Society, British Society of Animal Science and I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
I have a breadth of research interests however the main areas of my research are the diagnosis, immunopathogenesis and epidemiology of reproductive infections particularly zoonoses that can be spread from animals to humans. I am particularly interested in understanding the impact of these infections on human health and quantifying their effects on livestock farming.
My work involves collaboration with multiple partner organisations in the UK and overseas, including NHS Lothian, the Institute of Biodiversity Animal Health and Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow in the UK where I am an Affiliated Researcher and the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where I am an honorary Fellow. Internationally I have collaborations with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, The University of Nairobi, and International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya.