Experience:

International experience of biomedical research in world-leading Universities and Research Institutes in the UK, Canada and Australia.

I have led many research projects into the regulation of gene expression and the molecular basis of human disease, involving many international collaborations and coordinating biomedical research projects with China.

I have trained over 60 Masters and PhD students and junior postdoctoral researchers.

Publications:

I have co-authored 69 papers; 7000 citations; h-index = 38.

Expertise:

My research focuses on the mechanisms that control cell function and their roles in human diseases, in particular, the intracellular signalling pathways that control protein synthesis in mammalian cells.

Areas of current interest include the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway which integrates signals from nutrients and hormones such as insulin. In turn, mTOR controls a host of cellular processes, including protein and lipid synthesis. Defects in the control of mTOR can lead to human diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, neurological disorders and cardiovascular disease.

I also study the role of elongation factor 2 kinase (eEF2K) and the MNKs (all of which are protein kinases that control mRNA translation) in metabolic disease and in cancer.

My research at SAHMRI includes studies on the regulation of protein synthesis in cancer cells, especially in tumour growth, and on the molecular mechanisms that drive diet-induced weight gain and the development of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. A key goal is to identify novel therapeutic targets to tackle these widespread and often hard-to-treat disorders.

I am an Associate Member of the Faculty of 1000.