Andrew Halestrap is Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, specialising in Biochemistry, before moving to the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol to study the regulation of fat cell metabolism under the supervision of Richard (Dick) Denton. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 1974 and has stayed in Bristol ever since, becoming full professor in 1996. During his doctoral studies he discovered specific inhibitors of the plasma membrane and mitochondrial monocarboxylate (lactate and pyruvate) transporters and he has continued to work on the structure, function and regulation of these transporters ever since. However, his work on the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier led him to investigate the regulation of liver mitochondrial function by hormones and it was these studies that initiated an interest in the regulation of mitochondrial function by calcium. During the 1980s Dr. Halestrap focussed on the hormonal regulation of liver mitochondrial metabolism mediated by a calcium-induced increase in matrix volume. However, by 1990 it was the pathological effects of calcium to cause massive mitochondrial swelling through the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) that became the major focus of his work. He has made seminal contributions to the molecular mechanism of the MPTP and its critical role in reperfusion injury of the heart and brain. Dr. Halestrap was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008 and has been invited to give The Keilin Memorial Lecture of the Biochemical society in 2010.