Research Area
I am a Scottish Senior Clinical Academic Fellow with research interests in obesity and associated metabolic disease. My senior fellowship is focused on determining how we can safely increase energy expenditure as a novel treatment for metabolic disease. We have recently discovered novel mechanisms regulating human brown adipose tissue activation and shown that this regulation differs between species. To understand how energy expenditure by human brown adipose tissue and other tissues is controlled, we use a variety of techniques ranging from in vivo experimental medicine studies in humans, in vitro cell culture and transgenic murine models. We have developed novel in vivo tools to dissect human brown adipose tissue physiology and wider energy metabolism.
​
My other research interests include understanding the causes of obesity and type 2 diabetes, the importance of adipose tissue in metabolic health and the role of glucocorticoids in the pathophysiology of metabolic disease.
Profile
I was born in Glasgow and completed medical undergraduate training in Edinburgh in 2001. After undertaking a PhD investigating glucocorticoid metabolism in obesity at the University of Edinburgh, I completed my clinical training in 2013. I obtained an MRC Clinician Scientist fellowship in 2013 and a Scottish Senior Clinical Academic fellowship in 2018 investigating the regulation of brown adipose tissue activation and its role in cardiometabolic health.