Francis is Professor of Global Health and Tuberculosis at Imperial College, London (ICL), a clinical and public health microbiologist and physician (accredited in Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology) and Consultant Microbiologist at University Hospitals Dorset. He was a Wellcome Fellow based in New York City, Director of the UK National Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory (1996-2015) providing public health and clinical advice and has 25 years’ experience as leading/co-leading complex respiratory disease research programmes focusing on TB/HIV infections, COVID19, biomarker discovery, molecular and genomic-based diagnostics, antimicrobial drug resistance detection, with integration of clinical, biological, and social themes. Much of his research and training programme activity is focused in low/middle income countries especially in Eastern Europe and Africa. He has provided clinical care as a resident and Consultant, primarily for patient with tuberculosis and/or AIDS patients, at King’s College Hospital, Barts NHS Trust and other south London hospitals.

He was a Board Non-Executive Director for Kent Community Hospital Foundation Trust (2018-2022) including the COVID Clinical Reference Group, Vice Chair of the Quality Committee (with particular interest in medication errors, quality improvement and safety, End of Life issues, patients with learning disabilities and health inequalities), and a member of the Strategic Workforce, Remuneration and Audit/Risk Committees. He founded and remains a member of the ECDC TB Reference Lab Network (2009-onwards) and served on several clinical and public health ECDC committees. He has been a consultant for and had several roles with the World Health Organisation focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant bacterial infections, and the management of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (TB) and HIV-TB including, Director WHO Supra-national Reference Laboratory, member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group, Chair WHO European Laboratory Initiative on TB, HIV and viral hepatitis including supporting COVID diagnostic policy and activity. He was made a Fellow of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in 2017, is a Member of the Antimicrobial Research Collaborative (ARC) at ICL; co-founding member of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit Respiratory Infections, ICL (Co-I 2014-2017); was a member of the International Advisory Board for the Health Protection Research Unit on Antimicrobial Resistance, ICL (2014-20); a member of the Global CrypTIC molecular TB DST Consortium; a member of the MRC DPFS grant award panel in 2021-25. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2025.