My past work has focused on the identification of central mechanisms regulating metabolism in human musculoskeletal tissues, and where appropriate, using more tractable in vitro cell or where appropriate, in vivo animal models. Combining molecular biology, stable isotope methodologies and detailed in vivo human physiology, I have been a key part of a team that has discovered a number of fundamental parameters that govern alterations in protein metabolism with age and disease. In particular, I have led the molecular analysis in the majority of my publications and over more recent years in becoming laboratory Principal Investigator, been entirely responsible for grant income, research direction and development of state-of-the-art physiological experiments. The current direction of our laboratories work involves the combining of detailed molecular physiology with the application of carbon/ deuterium stable isotope methodologies and more recently, the integration of OMIC (genomic/ metabolomic) techniques to discover predictors of, and the basis for, musculoskeletal decline in ageing and disease.