Death from respiratory disease in the UK is twice the EU average. Illnesses such as lung cancer, asthma, pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are now killing more people in the UK than coronary heart disease. Cystic fibrosis is an inherited condition and results in premature death from lung disease as a result of repeated airway infections. The predominance of multi resistance superbugs makes the illness more difficult to treat and limits the quality of life of affected individuals.||Recently I have identified several naturally occurring small antibiotic molecule that are effective at killing several important superbugs. I wish to understand how this molecule kills bacteria and whether this will help the design of new antibiotics for use in the clinic.||I am also interested in how these host defence peptides are involved in inflammation and what function they have in addition to being antimicrobials.