Michael is a biochemist who studied Biochemistry at Bath University, during this time he spent time at the University of Michigan (USA) and Duke University (USA) for six-month placements. After his studies he worked for a year as a formulations technician at the vaccine company: PowderMed in Oxford. He returned to his studies for a DPhil (PhD) in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG) at the University of Oxford. His PhD work was on the application of novel magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy tools to better characterize metabolic alterations that occur during heart disease. Developing this further, he undertook a 2 year post-doc sponsored by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to investigate the translation of his PhD work into human volunteers in the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research. In 2014, Michael was awarded a Novo Nordisk Fellowship, to investigate the effects of fatty acids on the hearts ability to adapt to hypoxia.