Research
My part time post doctoral research associate position directly follows on from my doctoral studies. Our work focuses on elucidating the genetic basis of obesity using cross species genomics, with dogs as the primary discovery model. Such an approach offers translation benefits for human medicine as well as mammalian biology more widely. We follow up genetic discovery with functional cellular work, investigating the underlying neuroendocrinology. Not only have we identified novel obesity genes of relevance to dogs and humans, but we also discovered a previously unknown cellular mechanism affecting the leptin-melanocortin pathway, the central nexus for energy homeostasis.
Our work is trail blazing in the use of non-traditional animal models for genetic discovery and contributes to an improved social understanding of this complex disease, with implications for both veterinary and human medicine.