I have focussed my research career on addressing key issues in human development, correlating the phases of human growth and development with gene expression and associating these changes with disease states, drug treatment and the future development of disease. My current research on the pharmacogenomics of growth hormone therapy has enabled me to combine my background in genetics and molecular endocrinology with the analysis of different ‘omic datasets.

In order to investigate the significance of my findings surrounding age-related gene expression changes in children I have developed approaches using network biology that allow the analysis of gene expression data in the context of models of all known human protein:protein interactions (the “Interactome”). I have also pioneered the use of multiple “–omic” datasets (metabolomic, genetic, transcriptomic) to increase confidence in observed functional associations by taking an integrated approach to data analysis. Such approaches carry great potential in understanding the effect of disease mechanism on development as well as the efficacy and safety of drugs.