John is Director of Tissues, Cells and Advanced Therapeutics at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion service in Edinburgh and holds academic appointments at the University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh. He holds an honours degree in Cell and Immunobiology from Aberdeen University and a PhD in Pathology from the University of Edinburgh. He has worked on the therapeutic use of immune cells for 30 years, including his early research in parasite-infected macrophages at Roslin Institute/University of Edinburgh and subsequent lectureship in tumour immunology at University of Glasgow. John worked worldwide in the Biotech industry for 11 years, developing reagents and techniques to drive the adoption of cellular therapies in a variety of disease settings. Since returning to Edinburgh in 2013, John has led process development and manufacturing for the MATCH trials for the use of macrophage cell therapy to treat liver cirrhosis.