Early years
I am doing this as a prelude to establishing a serious web site for the clinic that I am Scientific Consultant to (The Portland Hospital Fertility Clinic). Once I have mastered the art, I shall construct a site on the hospital`s server. I am a scientist. I went to Mill Hill School, which is a minor public school in North London. It has produced a respectable number of Law Lords and one eminent scientist. This scientist was non other than Francis Crick who elucidated the structure of DNA. He was my childhood hero and must take some responsibility for my choice of career.

Professional training
I originally trained as a physiologist (the study of how the body works) by training (Kings College (KQC), 1979), after which I completed a PhD in the Biophysics Department (The School of Katz, Nobel Laureate 1970) at University College London (1984, Medical Research Council Scholar, 1979-1982). Biophysics is a field where physics is applied to biology, indeed, Francis Crick was also a biophysicist. As a former winner of the Mill Hill School Physics Prize (1975), this discipline was right up my street. During this time, I published a number of papers on nerve muscle interactions in vitro. Some of the unpublished observations I made here on growing new muscle and Schwann cells from adult biopsies might well be crucial in my future work as a tissue engineer (more on this anon). This work was relevant to muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis and other neural disorders. I spent a great deal of time extracting neural tissue from very early frog and chick embryos. My training in classical embryology had begun. The focus of my work became increasingly concentrated on how cells differentiated. The most undifferentiated cell is the FERTILIZED EGG! So, I obtained a postdoctoral post in the Anatomy & Embryology Department at UCL and thus became an embryologist.

A step into the world of human reproduction
After several years working on gap junctions (very important proteins, more of which anon). I left to become the laboratory director of the IVF Unit at London`s famous Wellington Hospital, where along with the Medical Director, I pioneered GIFT in the UK. We produced the UKs first GIFT twin and singleton pregnancies and deliveries! Armed with this notoriety, I went on to establish five IVF programmes of my own. I also began to travel extensively throughout the UK, visiting over 50 general hospitals (assisting many consultant gynaecologists with their fledgeling GIFT programmes). In fact, I have done GIFT cases in over 30 general hospital theatres. I wonder if this is a world record (Guiness Book of Records take note)? I have written a book entitled "Counselling in Male Infertility", published by Blackwells in 1996. From 1999 till 2000, I was in charge of the laboratory at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where I reprised my role at the Wellington Hospital, some fifteen years ago (see Chelsea & Westminster )! It was a hell of a year, but I achieved all of my objectives and showed myself that "I can still rock and roll". I am still actively involved in the ICSI programme at the Portland Hospital, where I am also the head of the laboratory. More recently here, I established a new form of  assisted hatching.

Telephone counselling
I am also pioneering the concept of providing infertility counselling on the telephone. I am a trustee as well as being the male infertility telephone counsellor (also Telephone Coordinator) for Issue, the National Fertility Association.

I have been constructing this site since 1997. In between, a lot of other projects have hampered my efforts, but at last I am able to focus some time and energies. By the end of 2001, this web site should reflect some of my ambitions regarding a web presence!

• ICSI

Here is a picture of our equipment which is used for ICSI. Our programme was established in July 1996 and the first babies already delivered last year. More deliveries have followed this year (1998) and the programme is now fully established. It is becoming clear that ICSI is the most significant treatment advance since IVF hit the headlines in 1978.