Our research - which spans basic science, clinical research, and epidemiology - studies the links between nutrition, metabolism and human health. The Theme includes researchers from the University of Adelaide's Centre for Nutrition & Gastrointestinal Disease Research, CSIRO Food & Nutrition and the Hopwood Centre for Neurobiology (formally the Lysosomal Diseases Research Unit), as well as SAHMRI’s Cell Signalling & Gene Regulation Group.

We have particular interests in the mechanisms, consequences and management of obesity and type-2 diabetes (T2D); inflammatory and functional disorders of the gut and diseases caused by defects in lysosomes, the cell’s recycling centre.

Specific areas of investigation include the regulation of appetite, the signalling mechanisms triggered by nutrients, the molecular mechanisms of nutrient detection and signalling by gut hormones, immune function and pain-sensing in the gut, interactions between nutrition, circadian rhythm and metabolic disorders, metabolism in liver, muscle and adipose tissue, the role of lysosomes in neurological diseases and defining optimal strategies for the prevention and management of obesity and T2D.

Cohort studies investigate the association between diet and sleep, cancer, anaemia, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and mortality. A major goal is to develop and validate innovative diets to promote health and wellbeing.