Barrett’s career in research has focused primarily on
neglected tropical diseases, particularly the
trypanosomiases and
leishmaniases. From Cambridge, he spent several years in
Bordeaux on a Royal Society fellowship before returning to the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1996 he moved to
Glasgow to set up his own laboratory. He has been involved in numerous projects seeking new drugs to treat these diseases and was director of new drug discovery at the Consortium of Parasitic Drug Development, a consortium centred at the
University of North Carolina and funded by the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation between 2003-2012. The group took
pafuramidine, a new orally available drug for human
African trypanosomiasis, through phase III clinical trials, although unanticipated toxicity issues halted development. He established the Scottish Metabolomics facility at the University of Glasgow that evolved into Glasgow Polyomics and his own research makes extensive use of genomics and metabolomics to identify drug modes of action and the mechanisms by which pathogens become resistant to drugs. To date, his group has identified new modes of action and resistance mechanisms to more than ten novel compounds that kill protozoa. Barrett also writes regularly for a variety of newspapers and magazines on topics related to science and also spanning the arts and sciences interface, particularly the
New Statesman. He is an enthusiastic proponent of public engagement with science and authored a booklet on “The Scottish Encounter with Tropical Disease". == Awards and honours ==