Top PI Charles Tyler: A passion for policy

Charles Tyler, a professor of environmental and molecular fish biology at the University of Exeter, is one of the founders of the field of endocrine disruption research. He tells Craig Nicholson about working closely with government and industry.

Charles Tyler began his research career in environmental toxicology working at a molecular, mechanistic scale, but his focus has gradually broadened during the past 25 years. This is perhaps a result of the number and variety of people he has collaborated with—something he says is particularly crucial in environmental research.

Tyler started working in environmental toxicology almost by accident. After completing a PhD on reproduction in fish, it was during his first postdoctoral research position that he and some collaborators at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science discovered that some male fish were producing a protein usually only made by females. The group eventually showed that discharge of oestrogen and other chemicals from sewage treatment works was responsible, and the field of endocrine disruption was born.