I gained an honors degree in Medical Sciences from the University of Birmingham with my final year spent speciailising in Medical and Molecular Genetics as well as Viral Oncology. Then (following a year spent in the pharmaceutical industry) I focused more on molecular biology with a PhD at the University of Cambridge with the aim of identifying silicon-responsive genes, preferably silicon transporters in the rat genome with the hope to link this to human genes.The main research for this was carried out at the Medical Research Council but along the way I set up collaborations and undertook work at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, and both The Gurdon and Babraham Institutes in Cambridge. As part of my research rat tissue was used to isolate candidate genes, using specialist gene arrays, for silicon transport, and protein expression studies (using both Xenopus oocyte and Baculoviral-insect cell models) were subsequently carried out.