[5] Subsequently, he gained admission to study medicine at the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, from where he graduated.
[2] While a student, with a friend doing a history PhD, he came across the story of sudor anglicus, the mysterious English sweating sickness of the 15th and 16th centuries.
[2][6] After discovering the grave of Henry Brandon, who he believed had been affected by the illness, he did not propose plans to exhume the body for DNA analysis.
[2][7] In Vietnam he was a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist Fellow and mentored by Nicholas White and Jeremy Farrar.
[9][11] He holds honorary professorship at the MRC Clinical Trial Units at University College London.