Journal of Surgery

Alastair Watson

Biography

Studied medicine at the Universities of Cambridge (Corpus Christi College) and London (St Thomas’ Hospital). Qualified in 1980. After junior posts in London, Edinburgh and Stoke on Trent became medical registrar in the King’s Liver Unit with Roger Williams. In 1985 became a research fellow with Michael Farthing in St Bartholomew’s hospital, London. In 1989 obtained a Medical Doctorate on the absorption of short chain fatty acids. Became a post-doctoral fellow with Mark Donowitz and Chip Montrose at Johns Hopkins Medical School (1988-90). In 1990 won a Senior Research Fellow Award from the American Gastroenterology Association and an award for outstanding accomplishment in Postdoctoral Research from the American Physiological Society. Returned to the University of Manchester in 1991 to work with Lord Turnberg on apoptosis in the GI epithelium. In 1992 was awarded The Sir Francis Avery Jones British Society of Gastroenterology Research Medal. Appointed Professor of Medicine at the University of Liverpool in 1998 where he served a number of senior administrative posts including Head of the Division of Gastroenterology and Head of the Department of Medicine. He was an Associate Editor of GUT (2003 – 04) then its Deputy Editor (2005 – 2007). He currently serves on the Council of the British Society of Gastroenterology and in 2010 was appointed as its first Secretary of International Affairs. In 2010 he was appointed the University of East Anglia as its first Professor of Translational Medicine.

Research Interest

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Colorectal Cancer Apoptosis Epithelial barrier function and cell sheddin