Damian is the 1777 Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh, and is an UK Medical Research Council Senior Clinical Fellow. His research is focussed on advancing translational therapies for benign and malignant diseases of the liver, pancreas and biliary system. Damian’s research is driven by a vision to produce innovative solutions to difficult health and societal problems and challenging diseases.

His entrepreneurial research strategy is based on a critical questioning approach, disease mechanism evaluation and seeking out and building the best teams to discover and deliver these solutions. Damian was recently a Visiting Researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA and was Principal Investigator on a pivotal collaboration with GSK making new medicines targeting inflammation and metabolism that has spun out as a biotech company, Kynos Therapeutics Ltd, which Damian leads as CEO. Previously, he led an academic industry collaboration to develop a non-invasive MRI tool for forecasting future liver performance after surgery. Damian’s current research includes understanding why people who have sustained significant inflammation have diminished overall survival and poor organ performance.