Anthony (Tony) Maxwell is a Group Leader at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK. He also holds an Honorary Chair at the University of East Anglia, UK. His research interests centre around DNA topoisomerases, focusing on their structure, mechanism and interaction with drugs, with a particular emphasis on antimicrobial agents. His current work also includes analysis of insect microbiomes in relation to antimicrobial resistance.

After completing his first degree in Biochemistry, at University College London, UK, Tony was awarded his PhD after research in restriction enzyme enzymology with Steve Halford at the University of Bristol. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA) on DNA gyrase.

In 1986 Tony was awarded a ‘New Blood’ lectureship at the University of Leicester, where he became a Professor in 1997; during the period 1991–1997 he held a Lister-Institute Jenner Fellowship. His work there involved mechanistic and structural studies on gyrase and other DNA topoisomerases, and investigations into drug-targeting aspects of these enzymes. In 2000, he moved to the John Innes Centre, the largest research institute for plant and microbial sciences in Europe. He has published over 200 papers and recently held a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award.