My research is involved in trying to understand the mechanisms and consequences of the link between altered fetal growth and the future development of diseases such as gestational and type 2 diabetes, gestational hypertension, the metabolic syndrome and premature puberty. The strategies that I have used have included the phenotypic analysis of in vivo models and in vitro genetic association studies relating common polymorphic variation in DNA with markers of disease. I am currently leading a programme of work assessing the role of fetal imprinted genes in affecting maternal metabolism and physiology in pregnancy, and then childhood metabolism and growth. Other interests include investigating growth and development-related effects on risk of gestational diabetes and hypertension risk in pregnancy, and the role of GDF15 in causing excess vomiting in pregnancy.
