I originally trained as a veterinarian at Liverpool University and practiced small animal medicine for 6 years before moving into laboratory animal medicine at Smith Kline Beecham in 1989.

In 1994 I joined Glaxo Wellcome to retrain as a toxicological pathologist. Since then I have gained 30 years’ experience in regulatory toxicology / safety assessment and discovery support across a range of therapeutic areas (including inhaled medicines, CNS, oncology) and modalities (small molecules and biopharmaceuticals) within large Pharma in the UK and Italy. From 2005 I worked at GlaxoSmithKline, including a number of years as Head of Pathology. In the last 15 years my experience has expanded to include cell and gene therapies for rare diseases, oncology, CNS and auto-immune disease. I was the nonclinical project team member for Strimvelis (for treatment of ADA-SCID) which achieved a successful marketing application in 2016 - the first licensed ex vivo gene therapy anywhere in the world.

After retiring from GSK in March 2021 I have been working as an independent pathology consultant in my own company (Cornelis Consulting Ltd). I have been a Member / Fellow of the RCPath for 25 years and currently chair the Toxicology Specialty Advisory Committee. I am also a former President of the British Society of Toxicological Pathology.