I completed my undergraduate Honour's degree in Biochemistry and Physiology at King's College London and PhD in Molecular Genetics at the Cell Mutation Unit, University of Sussex. Subsequently, I undertook my postdoctoral research on the identification of genetic determinants of cancer and then on genetic and molecular basis of neurodegeneration at the MRC Prion Unit, Imperial College London, and the Institute of Neurology, University College London. I joined the University of Sussex in 2003 as a lecturer and a research group leader focusing on elucidating the underlying molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular motor neuron disease. My seminal research on the identification of mutations in the components of axonal transport and their link with motor neuron disease highlighted for the first time the association between this pathway and motor neuron degeneration and impaired motor function.