Peter joined the Babraham Institute in 2011 as a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow and was awarded tenure by the Institute in 2017. He is also the Head of Public Engagement at the Institute. Peter is an Affiliate Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and at the Centre for Trophoblast Research and is the Chief Investigator of the Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI).

Peter trained in the laboratories of Roger Pedersen (University of Cambridge) and Janet Rossant (The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto) where he developed his interest in understanding the epigenetic regulation of stem cells and lineage specification.

Peter is also involved in the societal impact of human embryo and stem cell research. He has previously worked with artists to generate a major exhibition, which accompanied books that examine the complex ethical and social issues surrounding new technologies in these research fields. In addition to his leadership of human developmental research as part of the HDBI, Peter was involved as a research expert in the HDBI’s public dialogue on early embryo research, published in October 2023, and more recently in Cambridge Reproduction’s public dialogue on human embryo models. Peter is a member of a working group that is aiming to provide a Code of Practice in the UK for the responsible research use of stem cell-based embryo models. Since March 2024 he has been a member of the Scientific and Clinical Advances Advisory Committee within the HFEA (the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority).