Paul is the CSO at RQ Biotechnology Ltd and Professor of Virus Genomics at Imperial College London. Paul’s scientific career has spanned the pharmaceutical industry, at the Wellcome Foundation Ltd, Kymab Ltd and academia, where Paul was the Virus Genomics lead at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and a Professor of Virology at UCL. He has published over 250 primary research papers, reviews, book chapters and patents, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and was a scientific advisor to the UKs COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.

Paul’s research career has identified how HIV develops resistance to antiviral drugs and identified the first influenza disease severity gene in people hospitalised with influenza virus. His laboratory produced the virus genome analysis of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS CoV) outbreaks working with the Department of Health in Saudi Arabia, showing that the transmission pattern of the virus was consistent with multiple transfer events from an animal reservoir and contributing to the identification of camels as the animal reservoir. His laboratory contributed to the international Ebola virus genome analysis to help the WHO control the outbreak and to show the factors influencing virus transmission. Paul’s work on B cell repertoires has showed how the application of genetics and computational biology can lead to insights into infectious and non-infectious disease biology and can result in the discovery of antibodies to treat infections.