Ashley completed his PhD in 1994 in the laboratory of Prof Sir Alan Fersht at the University of Cambridge, on the structure determination of protein-DNA and protein-protein complexes. As a postdoc then staff scientist at the MRC Centre Cambridge, he made contributions to the understanding of protein stability, molecular recognition and the action of molecular chaperones. Ashley relocated to Monash University, Australia in 2003 and is currently an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and group leader in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His lab use a multidisciplinary approach to understand protein structure, dynamics and function, using protein crystallography, biophysics and molecular simulation.