Rob completed his PhD research at UCL Respiratory under the supervision of Dr. Adam Giangreco in 2016, establishing novel 2D and 3D organoid cell culture protocols for the long-term expansion of primary human airway epithelial cells. Rob's expertise in epithelial cell biology led to collaborative work on bioengineering (with Prof. Paolo De Coppi, ICH/GOSH) and on disease modelling, most notably of primary ciliary dyskinesia (with Prof. Chris O’Callaghan, ICH) and SARS-CoV-2 infection (with Dr. Claire Smith, ICH).

During his postdoctoral research, Rob was awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust to develop patient-derived lung cancer models within the lung TRACERx study at The Francis Crick Institute and UCL. This study led to multiple novel insights into cancer evolution in pre-clinical models, and has generated a resource that is now maintained by the CRUK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence and has led to multiple collaborative projects including on the roles of mTORC1 and the TSC2/RHEB axis in lung fibrosis (Prof. Rachel Chambers, UCL), lung-to-brain metastasis (Prof. Sheila Singh, McMaster University, Canada), mechanisms of resistance in RAS-driven tumours (Prof. Pablo Rodriguez-Viciana, UCL) and the identification of the AMBRA1-cyclin D pathway as a cell-cycle-regulatory mechanism (Prof. Jiri Bartek, Karolinska Institutet).

Rob was awarded a GOSH BRC Collaborative Catalyst Fellowship to establish his independent group at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health in 2022.