I completed my undergraduate degree in Pharmacology at the University of Bath, which included a year in industry working for Novartis in Switzerland. I subsequently completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge, which focused on neuronal mechanisms of acid sensing, before moving on to the Max-Delbrueck Centre for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany. During my 6 years in Berlin I researched the nervous system of the naked mole-rat, a truly bizarre animal: cold-blooded, eusocial and long lived, yet still a mammal! Part of my time was funded by an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship. My next postdoctoral work took me to the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, New York, USA, on a Max Kade Foundation Fellowship and my research centred on understanding how the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans senses carbon dioxide.