I started to work on yeast as a graduate student and have studied it ever since, with occasional excursions into the filamentous fungi and even Streptomyces bacteria. The yeast genome-sequencing project was initiated in my lab in the mid-1980’s when we started to sequence chromosome III. This turned into a major European Project, which eventually led to the sequencing of the entire yeast genome. I then took up the challenge presented by all the genes of unknown function revealed by the genome sequence, leading the EUROFAN Consortium that pioneered many of the ‘omic and other high-throughput technologies in current use.

My lab is dedicated to unravelling the workings of the yeast cell, using both top-down and bottom-up systems biology strategies. We are alos concerned with developing yeasts as systems to both understand and combat human diseases, including through the use of automated (‘Robot Scientist’ methods in collaboration with Ross King’s group in Aberystwyth).