Robert is a post-doctoral scientist working in the lab of James Briscoe at The Francis Crick Institute. He obtained a BSc in Genetics from the University of Sheffield, where his enduring passion for the molecular biology of cell fate specification began with a BBSRC-funded summer studentship, and a thesis project investigating human embryonic stem cell differentiation. Upon graduation these interests led him to undertake a BBSRC-funded PhD in the Laboratory of Prof. Jeremy Brockes at University College London, where he characterised the molecular activity of a plasma membrane protein that confers positional identity to progenitor cells in the regenerating salamander limb. Robert continued to pursue his interest in regeneration during a postdoctoral appointment in the laboratory of Dr. Aziz Aboobaker at the University of Nottingham, where he became interested in neural regeneration. Currently Robert’s research focus is split between projects investigating the integration of extracellular signalling with transcriptional control of neural cell fate specification and the molecular biology of Sonic Hedgehog signal transduction.