John Sinclair was awarded the B.Sc. degree from the University of Essex in 1977 and a PhD degree from the University of Essex in 1981. In 1985, he was appointed to a lectureship at the University of London and then moved to the University of Cambridge where he is now Professor of Molecular Virology in the Department of Medicine. His research interests are the molecular biology and pathogenesis of human herpes viruses, particularly human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). HCMV is a major cause of disease in transplant patients and patients with AIDS and his research program aims to understand latency and reactivation of this persistent human virus and how the host immune response combats virus disease. An important aspect of persistence of this virus in the human is the mechanisms by which the virus prevents cell death from occurring before the virus has completed its relatively long life cycle – it encodes a number of genes to prevent cell death. These pro-life/anti-death genes may act as novel therapeutics to prevent nuerodegeneration. Dr. Sinclair is a member of the Medical Research Council College of Experts and a member of the American Society for Microbiology. He is also an Editorial Board member for The Journal of General Virology and the Journal of Virology.