Fiona graduated in Bacteriology and Virology at Manchester University (1977) where she also completed her PhD on vaccinia virus. After four years as a post-doc in virology at Cambridge Vet School and Department of Pathology, Fiona joined the Houghton Poultry Research Station (later the Institute for Animal Health) to develop fowlpoxvirus as a replicating vaccine vector for important viral diseases of chickens including infectious bronchitis and Newcastle Disease. Since the late 1980's Fiona has worked on protozoan parasites (Eimeria species) of poultry with a focus on how they recognise and invade the gut of the chicken, and more recently on their interaction with host immune mediators, gut microbiota and food-borne zoonoses. She is also involved in efforts to develop more effective control of Dermanysssus gallinae (the poultry red mite). Alongside basic research, she has applied genomic, proteomic and transgenic technologies for poultry parasites and has a strong interest in the development of new types of vaccines for poultry infectious diseases.
