Organisation profile

Our research at the Insulin-like Growth Factors and Metabolic Endocrinology Group (IMEG) is focused on how nutrition and metabolism contribute to the development of major chronic disorders, with a specific interest in the role of insulin-like growth factors.

Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), together with insulin, are fundamental, nutritionally-dependent regulators of growth and metabolism. Many of the major chronic illnesses that increasingly burden our health services have been linked to a Western diet and lifestyle and are far less prevalent in large regions of the world .

We have been investigating the biology of IGFs and related factors and how they may mediate the effects of nutrition on chronic illness. Our research includes cell biology studies, translational clinical investigations and population epidemiology. We have focused on the major epithelial cancers and on obesity and more recently on interactions between these two conditions.