A genetics graduate from the University of Leeds, UK, I obtained my Ph.D. from the University of London in 1999 whilst working on the human genome project with Dean Nizetic. From 1999‐2002 I was a postdoctoral research fellow at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, St Thomas’ Hospital, London, with John McGrath. I then worked as a research associate with Ian Hart and subsequently as lecturer in Irene Leigh’s department at Bart’s and the London from 2002 to 2007. From 2007-2014, I was a lecturer, then senior lecturer at the University of Dundee, after which I moved to the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA, first as an Associate Professor, then Professor. Currently, I am a tenured Professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA.