I grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa where infectious disease, and especially tuberculosis, is prevalent.
I started my research career at The University of the Witwatersrand in Actinobacterial genetics, looking firstly at antimicrobial resistance determinants in Rhodococcus erythropolis, and then investigating conditions that promote callus growth in the red alga, Gracilaria verrucosa.
In 1994 I was employed as a Medical Scientist at Mycobacteriology Research Unit of the National Health Laboratory Service where I also carried out my PhD studies investigating RNase HI, an enzyme involved in RNA/DNA hybrid metabolism in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology at the University of the Witwatersrand under Dr Valerie Mizrahi. In 2001, I visited the Rockefeller University as a Columbia-Fogarty AITRP Fellow to look at vitamin B12-dependent dNTP provision in M. tuberculosis during pathogenesis in a murine mouse model. In 2004 I became a team member of the multi-university MRC/DST/NHLS Centre for Research Excellence in Biomedical TB Research (CBTBR) and established a program investigating the contribution of vitamin B12 acquisition for supporting pathogenesis in M. tuberculosis. This was funded by the National Research Foundation, and the National Health Laboratory Service
In 2007 I moved to New Zealand, and joined the Structural Biology Group at the University of Auckland in 2008, working with Prof. Ted Baker and Dr Shaun Lott on TB Structural Genomics Consortium projects. Over the years I have been variously funded by FRST, HRC, MWC and MBIE grants.
Recently, work into investigating how combinations of antibiotics might be able to better outcomes in terms of antibiotic stewardship and effectiveness has been supported by an HRC Explorer Grant.

In addition to supporting better health outcomes, I am also engaged in investigating the advantages that enzymatic treatment of plastic waste provides for both effective recycling of pET, and removal of PET microplastics from the environment.