School of Life Sciences

After a first degree in Biochemistry at Birmingham University, I did my PhD in Jim Barber’s Lab at Imperial College London, graduating in 1976. Jim instilled in me a love for photosynthesis research and taught me many of the research techniques that I would use for the next 20 years. I was then fortunate to spend postdoctoral spells working in two world famous research institutes. In 1976 I joined Geoff Hind’s group at the Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island NY. We worked on control of electron transport pathways in higher plants in projects linked to solar energy converse on mechanisms. I then moved to Nobel laureate Peter Mitchell’s lab, the Glynn Research Institute in a Cornwall, working on the regulation of the chloroplast ATP synthase.

In 1983 I came to Keele to set up a photosynthesis research group and to teach on the newly established Biochemistry degree programme. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and have been here ever since.

At Keele my research interests have centred on the mechanism and control of ATP synthesis in photosynthesis using the classical enzymology I learned as an undergraduate, fluorescence techniques Barber taught me, mathematical modelling techniques I developed at Glynn and a wealth of ideas generated in discussions with Mitchell. I have published over 50 papers in this field. More recently, research has taken a back seat as I have became more involved in teaching and administering our brilliant courses, first as Director for Biochemistry and more recently as head of School, a role I relinquished in 2008. I still maintain research interests in computational biology and bioinformatics and have links with the Structural Biology group and CAEP group in ISTM.

I teach a variety of topics including biochemistry, metabolism, enzymology, cell biology, bioinformatics and plant biology on the following modules.

Science Foundation Year

• LSC0003      Introduction to Biology of the Human Organism

Level 1

• LSC10015     Energy for Life: Metabolism and its Control
• LSC10034     Nature’s Tools: Proteins and Enzymes (Module Manager)
• LSC10036     Cells and Organelles (Module Manager)
• LSC10030     Case Studies in Medicine

Level 2

• LSC20002     Symbiotic Interactions between Organisms
• LSC20015     Molecular, Cellular and Structural Immunology 
• LSC20040     Professional Relationships

Level 3

• LSC30007     Biology Dissertation
• LSC30010     Acquisition and Analysis of Information
• LSC30011     New Agriculture: Plant Molecular Biology (Module Manager)
• LSC30014     Biochemistry research Project (Non-experimental)
• LSC30015     Biology of Disease
• LSC30026     Case Studies in Biomedical Sciences

School of Pharmacy

• PHA10005    Major Metabolic Pathways
• PHA10009    MPharm Cells and Organelles: Biochemical Aspects of Cell Biology