In 1977, the team was joined by
Ros Ridley whose project was concerned with investigating the cognitive effects of amphetamine administration. I started to work with Ros and, although I was initally concerned with measuring the metabolism of drugs, I soon became interested in measuring abnormal behaviour, and took a higher degree in psychology. Ros and I worked together continuously on a number of projects aimed at elucidating the neurobiological basis of learning and memory and assessing the ability of neural tissue transplants to ameliorate the behavioural consequences of brain lesions. We also became interested in the genetic basis of neurological disease and were part of the team which found the first gene mutation leading to Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS) an inherited form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) one of the spongiform encephalopathies. We became involved in research on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in 1986 and, in particular, on the transmissibility of BSE.