My laboratory works on understanding the mechanisms by which cells sense and signal hypoxia (low oxygen levels). Oxygen is of fundamental importance for most living organisms, and the maintenance of oxygen homeostasis is a central physiological challenge for all large animals. Hypoxia is an important component of many human diseases including cancer, heart disease, stroke, vascular disease, and anaemia.

Working initially on regulation of the haematopoietic growth factor erythropoietin (which shows strong transcriptional upregulation by hypoxia), the laboratory discovered that the underlying oxygen sensitive signal pathway is widely operative in mammalian cells, extends to invertebrates, and mediates a range of other transcriptional responses including those regulating angiogenesis and metabolism. The laboratory went to define the oxygen sensing and signalling pathways that link the essential transcription factor, hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) to the availability of oxygen.