I was born in Cardiff and graduated in Pharmacology from Portsmouth in 1990. I then spent four years in the Midlands and Kent as a PhD student at Aston University and Welcome Research Laboratories before joining Sandoz Pharmaceuticals as a Clinical Research Associate. I returned to Portsmouth in 1997 as a Senior Lecturer, having completed 3 years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario, where I conducted research into inflammatory bowel disease.

I was promoted to Principal Lecturer in 2005 and was the Course Leader for BSc (Hons) Pharmacology programme between 2003 and 2013 and the Head of Pharmacology until 2018. Between 2013 and 2016 I was the Science Faculty International Coordinator and am currently the Associate Head (Global Engagement & Education Partnerships). I served on the British Pharmacological Society (Education & Training Committee) for 8 years, demitting after two terms in 2020 and was elected Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society in December 2022.

I am the Head of the Gastrointestinal Pharmacology Group and my overarching research interest has focussed on gastrointestinal dysfunction in both the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract. Specifically I am interested in the relationship between enteric glia and intestinal pathologies ranging from inflammation to motility dysfunction. I have previously explored cell signalling within the gastric epithelium and the roles that nitric oxide, protein kinases and dystrophin play in this process. More recently we are looking at the role of non-psychoactive cannabinoids within smooth muscle of the GI and reproductive tracts.