Professor Barford studied Biochemistry at the University of Bristol and undertook his DPhil research at the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, University of Oxford in Louise Johnson’s group where he elucidated the structural basis for control of glycogen phosphorylase by protein phosphorylation. He then spent one year in the groups of Philip Cohen and Tricia Cohen at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Protein Phosphorylation Unit, University of Dundee before moving to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), New York in 1991 as a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Fellow. At Dundee and CSHL he initiated his research on protein phosphatases.

In 1994, Professor Barford returned to the University of Oxford as a University Lecturer and was appointed as Professor of Molecular Biology and Co-chair of the Section of Structural Biology at The Institute of Cancer Research in 1999. Here he has focussed his research on proteins regulating signal transduction pathways and the cell cycle.

Professor Barford was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2003 and European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) Member in 2003 and was awarded the Colworth Medal of the Biochemical Society in 1998.