Briefly, tell us about your background and career up to this point?
If I had to sum up my career and research interests in a single word, I would definitely say interferon*! My journey in the world of innate immunity began in my PhD at Imperial College London in Prof Geoff Smith’s lab where I studied innate immune evasion strategies of the model poxvirus vaccinia virus. Poxviruses are huge (as viruses go…) and have a lot to teach us about how the immune system works!
I continued this work with Geoff for a short postdoc when he moved to the University of Cambridge and there I became particularly interested in an arm of innate immunity called DNA sensing. cGAS (a type of DNA sensor) had just been discovered and I was betting that viruses would have strategies to evade DNA sensing, so for my second postdoc I moved to UCL to work with Prof Greg Towers on cGAS sensing of HIV-1 and related lentiviruses.
During the pandemic, I moved closer to home to the Section of Virology at the University of Surrey where I worked as a Senior Research Fellow with the Maluquer de Motes lab. Here I began developing some more independent research programmes on how innate immunity, particularly the cGAS/STING pathway, is regulated during homeostasis (e.g. during cell division) and subsequently dysregulated during infection and disease settings such as cancer. During this time, I also became reacquainted with poxviruses and spent a lot of my time in the CL3 lab at The Pirbright Institute characterising the new mpox strain responsible for the global outbreak in 2022/2023.
In January 2025 I moved to the Department of Infectious Diseases at King’s as a Lecturer in host/pathogen interactions to start my own research group where I will continue to use viruses (particularly DNA viruses) as tools to learn new things about innate immunity.
*a group of signalling proteins that alert the immune system when there is an infection
What is a typical day like for you?
I don’t think there is a typical day in academia and that’s what I love about it. Our role is so varied – whether that’s working in the lab, supervising students, writing a paper, giving a lecture, reviewing a grant, attending a conference… there’s always something to keep you interested.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
Don’t worry so much about what you think people think about you. You’ve still got a lot of learning and growing to do and nobody is perfect. Be yourself and never stop being curious.
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
Over the last couple of years, I’ve become interested in innate sensing in the context of cancer. It has become clear that the same innate sensors that sense pathogen DNA and RNA can also sense host-derived nucleic acids. This is particularly relevant in tumour cells where there’s accumulation of DNA damage and other abnormalities. Like viruses, cancer cells also evolve strategies to evade innate sensing pathways to block the production of interferon (which has anti-cancer activity as well as being anti-viral) and other inflammatory mediators. My goal is to apply what I’ve learnt from viruses to understand more about this process in tumour cells, and use this knowledge to design novel therapeutic strategies.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
This summer is a big birthday for me so I’m looking forward to taking a bit of time out to celebrate with friends and family, ideally with good food, good wine and some sunshine.
What is something positive that happened to you over the last year?
A bit cliché but starting as a lecturer at King’s is probably the most positive thing that has happened to me over the last year. This is my first independent position, and we work so hard to get to this moment so I’m really excited to start my own group and have the opportunity to pursue my research interests.
What is your favourite part of your role?
I love that I get to go to work and spend my time researching things that I’m passionate about and totally fascinate me. Sharing this knowledge and passion with students and colleagues is truly a great privilege.
Quick-fire round:
Coffee order: I actually don’t drink much coffee, but I’m a massive tea drinker. I’m one of those people that travels with their own tea bags to make sure they can get a good cup of tea!
One thing you could not go a day without: A cup of tea haha
Most-used emoji: The face with one raised eyebrow
The quality you value most in others: Motivation