After obtaining his BSc in Physiology and Biochemistry, John undertook a PhD in neurovascular biology at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, where his work focused on the structure and function of the blood vessels of the brain in health and disease. He then moved to King’s College London for two years to continue this training after which, in 1990, he was awarded in the Renee Hock Fellowship at the Institute of Ophthalmology, London. Following appointment to Senior Lecturer in 1993 he was subsequently appointed to the Davson Chair of Biomedical Research in 2000. Between 2008 and 2016 he was Head of the Department of Cell Biology at the Institute of Ophthalmology and sat on the board of management from 2006-2016.
The focus of John’s research is the role the vasculature plays in diseases such as uveitis, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, multiple sclerosis (MS), and cancer. The overarching aim of this work is to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms that contribute to the disease process, identify potential therapeutic targets, develop and test therapeutic strategies and eventually translate this into patient trials.
During his career, John has raised substantial grant income including major programme grants from the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. He has published over 200 papers, many being in the top most impactful scientific journals including Nature and the Lancet. He has been invited to present his work at many international conferences, has sat on various charitable grant award panels, and has chaired several external international scientific advisory panels. He is a co-founding scientist of a UCL spinout company commercialising a therapy that targets the vasculature and fibrosis in the eye and in other diseases such as kidney disease and cancer. He has supervised over 30 PhD students.
John joined the Board of Trustees in November 2023.