David Perry is a senior academic in the School of Biosciences at the University of Westminster. He is a biochemist by training with a long-standing interest in pharmaceuticals and their actions. He became interested in the field of panic attacks when acting as advisor to a PhD student (Andjelka Stones) carrying out psychological and biochemical research in the area. This led to a research collaboration involving Internet-based questionnaires aimed at gathering and analysing information from people that have panic attacks.