Dr Ferguson graduated from Strathclyde University, Glasgow with Bsc (Hons) in Biology with chemistry and a PhD in Bioengineering.
He took employment in the cosmetics industry (Beecham Products, Leatherhead) to develop and test skin and sun care products and other cosmetics, and has now spent a total of 25 years in the industry.
Fifteen of those years were with The Boots Company in Nottingham in cosmetic development laboratories. This was followed by five years as R&D Director for Oriflame International in Dublin, Ireland.
Dr Ferguson established his own independent consulting and product development company (Skinnovation Ltd) in October 2000.
Dr Ferguson is a specialist in sun product development and testing, a field, which he has become internationally known. He has been active in industry committees defining sun product test methods. During his period at Boots, Dr Ferguson was jointly responsible for the development and introduction of the Boots UVA Star Rating System for sun products, which is used throughout UK and Ireland.
Jack has presented verbal and written papers on a number of topics in cosmetic science including sun protection, and has been a consultant on cosmetic product claims since May 2001 to Clearcast (formerly BACC).
Jack was a trustee and Hon Treasurer to FRAME (Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experimentation) charity between January 2004 and November 2009.
Dr Dover gained his PhD at the Cancer Research Campaign’s Paterson laboratory in Manchester, where he studied growth, differentiation and radiation response in cultured skin.
He continued his research into the growth and differentiation of skin and hair, first at the University of Iowa USA, then at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London and Dermatology Department at the University of Oxford. He then moved to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, (now Cancer Research UK).
Dr Dover is currently an independent expert and has acted as a reviewer for a number of journals including the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, British Journal of Dermatology and Journal of Cell Science. His interests are in stem cell biology, growth control in the skin, study of cell proliferation in skin and hair and in vitro models of skin. Using organotypic models of skin he has performed grafts onto burns and other plastic surgery cases. Sex-mismatched grafts showed survival of some grafted cells at 2.5 years post grafting.
He has demonstrated proliferative heterogeneity in cultured cells, matching that of skin in vivo and consistent with stem cell models of skin organisation. He has developed methodologies for measuring proliferative activity and the rate of differentiation of cultured cells allowing investigations of the mode of action of various agents on skin growth.
