I am a group leader at the University of Bristol, an Editor for Journal of Cell Science, and also an affiliate of the bioRxiv preprint server.

I studied Biochemistry at Royal Holloway College, University of London and did my PhD at St. George’s Hospital Medical School (also University of London). This was followed by postdoctoral research first with Prof. George Banting in Bristol and then with Dr Rainer Pepperkok at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. Here I learned advanced light microscopy while working on COPII-dependent secretion. After being awarded a Medical Research Council Non-Clinical Career Development Fellowship in 2001, I started my lab in Bristol.

The aim of the Stephens lab is to understand cell function in the context of membrane and cytoskeleton dynamics. Our work addresses secretory pathway function, notably the secretion of the collagen matrix, and the formation and function or primary cilia.