Professional background

My undergraduate education was at UCL. Thereafter, I completed my postgraduate medical training in general medicine and haematology in various London hospitals. I undertook my PhD in the Medical Research Council Laboratories of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. I was appointed assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN USA betwen 1999 and 2003. I returned to UCL in 2003 with a clinical practice at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

I am presently professor of haematology at UCL with a clinical practice at UCLH, where I work within the leukaemia service. My foremost goal is to improve the outcome for adults with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

As a clinician scientist, I am heavily involved in the UK's clinical trials programme for ALL and am chief investigator of UKALL14 and UKALL60+, the UK's frontline academically-initiated trials for ALL. My research lab programme takes advantage of the opportunity to do translational work arising from these trials - we have a range of projects which examine basic aspects of ALL biology in various models. Another goal in the lab is the development of attenuated oncolytic measles virus as a therapy for ALL. We are specifically interested in the mechanistic aspects of how measles virus kills cancer cells leaving non-transformed cells relatively unharmed. We are also investigating on how measles virus interacts with the immune system during cancer treatment. Our projects are funded by Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and CR UK.

I am currently president of the British Society of Haematology

Research interests

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia