Professor of Human Metabolism and Integrative Physiology
I hold a personal chair in Human Metabolism and Integrative Physiology and I chair the University Research Ethics Committee. I hold honorary titles at the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science (University of Cambridge), the Joslin Diabetes Centre (Harvard University), the Leeds Institute for Metabolic and Cardiovascular Medicine (University of Leeds), and Zhejiang Gongshang University.
I hold expert advisory and consultancy roles for public, commercial, and charitable bodies, including the World Health Organisation, NHS England, and Diabetes UK, and, I am a member of several international consortia. In 2024 I was appointed a co-chair for the Research Excellence Framework (REF29) People, Culture, and Environment pilot REF29 Pilot Panel.
I have attracted over £2.3m in research funding from UKRI, industry, and charity, published over 150 peer-reviewed outputs, and received several international awards for research.
In 2023, I was appointed concurrently as the Vice-Chancellor's Research and Knowledge Exchange Fellow and the Vice-Chancellor's Research Culture Fellow.
Teaching and supervision
Research interests for potential research students
I welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study.
In my laboratory, you will learn a range of cellular and molecular biology and/or clinical techniques to investigate mechanisms and treatment pathways. Building on our recent observations and hypotheses, a major theme within our group is exploring the potential for therapeutic intervention (pharmacological and lifestyle) in people with type 1 diabetes with concurrent insulin resistance.
Prospective PhD students are encouraged to contact me, with a CV and a cover letter, explaining their motivations for applying and their research interests. Suitable candidates will demonstrate a strong background and interest in metabolism relating specifically to diabetes, vascular complications, and lifestyle intervention.
We periodically have funded PhD positions available and self-funding PhD applicants, or those with scholarships from their home institutes and governments are also welcome to apply.
Research
I am a multidisciplinary scientist with research interests spanning biological systems that impact human metabolism and cardiometabolic health. Much of my work has focused on the treatment of diabetes and the prevention of its associated complications, specifically within the context of type 1 diabetes.
My earlier work developed effective self-management strategies for the avoidance of exercise-induced hypoglycaemia and late post-prandial hyperglycaemia in type 1 diabetes which has informed international health policy and clinical guidelines.
More recently, my work has focused on the early identification and potential prevention of diabetes complications. To this end, I run several programmes of research concentrating broadly on three interlinked areas: glucose control, vascular risk, and insulin resistance. This work covers the entire translational continuum from discovery to translation to communities focusing on exploring mechanisms underpinning poor clinical outcomes, heterogeneity of treatment response, and therapeutic (pharmacological and lifestyle) intervention. In 2024, I established the International Consortium for Insulin Resistance in Type 1 Diabetes which I currently co-chair.
My research has been generously supported NIHR, MRC, BBSRC, Diabetes UK, British Heart Foundation, Nutricia Research Foundation, in addition to industry sponsorship for investigator-led research from Abbott Diabetes Care, NovoNordisk, MSK, Dexcom, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and AbbVie.
My work has been published in internationally leading journals including Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, Nature Reviews Endocrinology, Diabetes Care, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Cardiovascular Diabetology, and Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism.
- Diabetes and glucose regulation
- Vascular complications
- Lifestyle intervention
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