My post-retirement activities include completing research papers and projects from my laboratory, often in collaboration with former students and postdoctoral researchers. I also serve as Biological Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society, a role that encompasses oversight of grants, science policy, and the election of new Fellows.

I set out as a PhD student to understand how genes are regulated. I believed that uncovering the underlying mechanisms of gene regulation would illuminate fundamental questions in biology and offer solutions to challenges in agriculture and medicine. Being somewhat squeamish, I chose to work on plants rather than animals, expecting that the principles of genetic regulation would be conserved across the tree of life.

Since then, my research journey has taken me through the worlds of hormones, viruses, innate immunity, and epigenetics, but my central focus has always remained the challenge I set myself as a student: understanding genetic regulation. Working with my group, we discovered a class of regulatory RNAs now known as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and revealed how they can influence gene expression at the levels of DNA, chromatin, and RNA. Our findings have informed innovations in crop improvement, agricultural biotechnology, and the treatment of diseases in humans and farm animals.

I have always found it valuable to pursue unexpected leads, and in that same spirit, I am now exploring inheritance patterns that do not follow Mendel’s laws and the ways in which pathogens manipulate the immune systems of their hosts.