Michael Roberts started his career by studying biochemistry at the University of Glasgow and earned his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He always had a very strong interest in understanding how genes are controlled, and his thesis focused on examining how expression of pro-survival genes help shape neuronal plasticity in the peripheral nervous system.

Following his graduate studies, Dr. Roberts worked to develop novel gene therapies for neuromuscular disorders and took on a Marie Curie fellowship in Greece to learn about utilizing functional genomics in the study of cancer. It was the switch from gene therapy to genomics that seeded the idea of the technology underpinning Synpromics, which was acquired by AskBio in April 2019.