My lab harnesses the power of pre-clinical models of obesity and glucocorticoid-induced cardiometabolic dysregulation, together with translational approaches in humans, to better understand the underlying pathologies of cardiometabolic complications and to seek out better therapeutic approaches. Our lab has a specific interest type 2 diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cardiac remodelling.

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I obtained my undergraduate degree in Immunology from the University of Edinburgh, including a placement in the lab of Prof Ian Dransfield in the Centre for Inflammation Research, before undertaking a PhD at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science with Prof Ruth Andrew examining the role of glucocorticoid metabolism on inflammation. In 2012, I moved to the Integrative Biology and Pharmacology Department at the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston to continue my Postdoctoral training with Prof Rebecca Berdeaux. Here I identified a novel role for the AMPK-related kinase SIK1 in regulating glucose homeostasis in obesity.

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In 2014, I joined Prof Brian Walker’s group at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science in Edinburgh and demonstrated a novel role for the transmembrane exporter ABCC1 in regulating adipose tissue glucocorticoid exposure. In 2018, I was awarded a BHF Basic Science Intermediate Research Fellowship to establish my own group in Edinburgh investigating the contribution of corticosteroid binding globulin (CBG) cleavage to adipose glucocorticoid delivery in obesity.