Our laboratory's interests are in the physiology of brain systems that regulate energy balance (appetite, body weight, blood glucose). Neurones in integratory centres of the brain combine synaptic inputs, including those that relay sensory and emotional information, with endocrine inputs, including feedback from circulating hormones and nutrients. Outputs from these centres then drive regulatory responses by other peripheral organs, such as the liver, pancreas and adipose tissue. An understanding of these pathways may reveal novel sites for future therapeutic intervention in diseased states, such as obesity and diabetes. This biology requires a multidisciplinary approach covering brain connectivity, signal detection and transduction, gene identification and expression, neuronal output and finally behaviour.

Recently we have provided evidence for the existence of new pathways that can integrate short-term satiety signals from the gut and brainstem, or circulating nutrients, with longer-term regulators of body weight located in the hypothalamus. We are investigating how whole brain circuits involved in homeostasis and reward respond to different stimuli depending on state and how this relates to the development of metabolic diseases. We are particularly interested in how the expression of the genome reflects the current obesogenic environment.