I am a Virologist and Lecturer in Global Health at St George's University of London. I am one of those scientists with a massive passion to understand viruses so that we can find a way to tackle them. When I work in the lab, I must wear a lab coat, but:

Now, I am running in my lab coat!

I want to raise funds for the St George's University COVID-19 Action Fund. The fund seeks donations to develop our specialist research environment and allow our experts (including me!) to understand the virus, SARS-CoV-2. Funds will be used for pilot projects: these are high-risk high-potential pioneering experiments that test a scientific idea. If the idea is good and we have the data to back it up, we can apply for bigger funding via the national and international channels ;-) Basically, your donations will be springboard funding!

I have worked with important human viruses, including HIV, poliovirus and Ebola. During the Ebola outbreak I spent almost a year in Sierra Leone, first as a team leader of a rural molecular diagnostics laboratory, and then as the Public Health England in-country lead. I ran the diagnostics and research operations on the ground and liaised with national and international stakeholders (including WHO, US CDC and SL Ministry of Health and Sanitation) to respond to the outbreak, but also to inform policy and establish a resilient health care system.

As the SARS-CoV-2 entered our world and the COVID-19 pandemic took the stage, it was clear to me that I as a virologist I could do something. I have been working closely with my clinical academic colleagues to support clinical trials and to gain insights into how the virus works. In particular, I aim to understand how the virus might infect cells outside of the respiratory system and cause the variety of symptoms that we see in COVID-19 patients.

I have been running for many years and the highlights have been the Cape Town Marathon and the Midsummer Munro (aka The Hardest Half in the UK). However, as the coronavirus spread, I found myself in a virological/academic whirlwind and didn't run for ~ 2 months in March and April. Now it's time to go back and do it in a different way!

I will be running in my lab coat!

The coat is a crucial garment in the laboratory as it protects both us researchers and our samples. It is quite thick and rough, but I love wearing it. It is very much the symbol of us scientists ;-)

So, I have grabbed a couple of super-clean lab coats and personalised them: a couple of times a week, I run to raise funds for the St George's University COVID-19 Action fund. Check out this page and @ViralRNA on Twitter for updates and pictures of my lab coat runs. And, if you are in London and see me, wave and say hi!