Mick graduated as a vet from Bristol in 1979, but has spent almost the whole of his career in research on mucosal immune responses. His interests are in the way the mucosal immune system responds to, and distinguishes between, harmless antigens from food and commensal micro-organisms and those from pathogens. His lab documented the way the mucosal immune system of the young pig develops in response to early microbial colonisation, and has demonstrated the impact of early-life manipulation of microbiome with pre- and probiotics.