Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Professor of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
- Structural & Molecular Biology
- Div of Biosciences
- Faculty of Life Sciences
I obtained my first degree in Biochemistry from Christ Church, Oxford where I did my research project with Peter Goodford working on his GRID program - one of the first methods for computational drug design; this inspired my interest in computational biology and bioinformatics. I stayed in Oxford to do my D.Phil with Tony Rees and developed the first automated program for modelling antibodies. This was later commercialized by Oxford Molecular (OML).
After a brief stint with Willie Taylor at NIMR, I became self-employed, helping OML with commercialization of my software, and writing other scientific software including for the National Grid Company and Bradwell Nuclear Power Station. I then spent two months working at the DKfz in Heidelberg before joining Janet Thornton's group at UCL. I then became a temporary lecturer at UCL seconded 4 days a week to a spinout company, Inpharmatica, before moving to the University of Reading as a lecturer in 1999 and returning to UCL in 2004.
I have acted as a consultant to pharmaceutical companies and as an advisor or expert witness in several patent disputes. In 2016 I joined the World Health Organization International Nonproprietary Names committee as an advisor on naming and annotation of antibody-based drugs.


My main interests are in bioinformatics and computational biology. In particular, I work on (1) sequence, structure and function of antibodies, (2) the effects of mutation on protein structure and function, (3) protein modelling, (4) software development for Bioinformatics.
I give first year tutorials on experimental biochemistry and second year tutorials on protein structure. I give introductory bioinformatics lectures to second year students as well as lectures on protein energetics, protein folding and antibody structure. I teach extensively on the third year bioinformatics module and on the Birkbeck/UCL Bioinformatics MSc. I teach bioinformatics for drug design, antibody structure and patent issues on the MSc in drug design. I am also coordinator for Transitions and Peer Assisted Learning in the department and teach session on programming and on patents and intellectual property as part of core modules.
01-OCT-2018 | Professor of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology | Structural and Molecular Biology | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-2014 – 30-SEP-2018 | Reader in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology | Structural and Molecular Biology | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-MAY-2005 – 30-SEP-2014 | Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics | Structural and Molecular Biology | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-JAN-2004 – 30-APR-2005 | Lecturer in Bioinformatics | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | UCL, United Kingdom |
1990 | Doctor of Philosophy | University of Oxford | |
1986 | Bachelor of Arts (Honours) | University of Oxford |