He successfully investigated Australian families with mostly dominantly inherited diseases, playing a role in identifying mutations in SOD1 as a cause of familial motor neuron disease; mutations in tropomyosin as the first known cause of nemaline myopathy; mutations in actin as a major cause of severe congenital myopathies of various types, and mutations in myosin as the cause of “Laing” myopathy.
In 2015 Professor Laing was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
Nigel was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in The Queen’s Birthday 2015 Honours List for distinguished service to medicine in the field of neuromuscular disorders, as an academic and researcher, to medical education, and through contributions to professional associations.