Gordon Brown obtained his Ph.D from the University of Cape Town. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford, he returned to Cape Town to establish his independent laboratory. He took up a Chair at the University of Aberdeen in 2009 and then moved to the University of Exeter in 2019. He is Director of the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Exeter and of the AFGrica Unit, based at the University of Cape Town. Gordon is an honorary Professor at the Universities of Cape Town and Aberdeen.

Gordon’s research focusses on the understanding the role of C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) in immunity. He has provided important insights into how CLRs enable immune cells to sense pathogens (particularly fungi), how this information is transmitted intracellularly, and how these receptors initiate and control innate and adaptive immunity. He has also translated his discoveries into human benefit, leading to the identification of polymorphisms and other factors that are associated with disease susceptibility, as well as a novel therapy that was successfully tested in patients.