Penny graduated from Cambridge in 1989 and spent 4 years in mixed practice before returning to Cambridge to undertake a residency in Small Animal Medicine followed by a lectureship and then senior lectureship. She is interested in all areas of internal medicine but particularly gastroenterology; hepatology and clinical nutrition. She has both RCVS and European medicine diplomas and a doctorate on aspects of chronic pancreatitis in dogs. Her ongoing clinical research is on liver and pancreas diseases in dogs and cats, particularly focussing on their pathology and similarities to human diseases.