Alan Brash grew up in Scotland and retains (some of) his Scottish accent. He received his BA degree in medical sciences from Downing College, Cambridge, his Ph.D. on the analysis of prostaglandins from the University of Edinburgh, and after a fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (Hammersmith Hospital) in London, he moved to Vanderbilt University where currently he is Professor of Pharmacology.

Alan is an analytical biochemist with a long-standing interest in lipoxygenases and cyclooxygenases, and in enzymic and non-enzymic transformations of fatty acid hydroperoxides. Analysis of lipoxygenase reactions is a prime specialty, particularly regarding the control of stereochemistry, an interest that has developed over the past 20 years to unraveling the role of essential fatty acids and the 12R-lipoxygenase pathway in forming the mammalian skin permeability barrier.