Johnjoe McFadden was born in Ireland but educated in the UK. He graduated as a biochemist in 1977 from the University of London and then studied for a PhD in fungal genetics (also at University of London) before moving into human genetics and then back to microbial genetics. Since the early 1980’s McFadden’s work has focussed on elucidating virulence mechanisms and pathways of microbial pathogeesis, particularly the agents that cause tuberculosis and meningitis. As well as his mainstream work, McFadden has also written popular science articles on a range of topics from evolutionary genetics to quantum mechanics. McFadden became interested in the phenomenon of adaptive mutation and in 1999 wrote a paper, with Jim Al-Khalili, proposing a role for quantum mechanics in mutation. He went on to write the book, Quantum Evolution in 2000 in which he proposed a wider role for quantum mechanics in biology. His mainstream research has continued in microbial genetics, particularly in developing new systems biology approaches to infectious diseases, developing the first in silico metabolic model of the TB bacillus in 2007 and the meningococcus in 2010. Johnjoe McFadden is a keen promoter of public understanding of science and has given many popular science talks on subjects as varied as evolution and GM food. He also writes popular science articles, particularly for the Guardian newspaper. Specialties: systems biology, microbiology, evolutionary genetics, infectious diseases, tuberculosis, meningitis, bionanotechnology

Professor of Molecular Genetics at University of Surrey