With colleagues in the life sciences, I develop close interdisciplinary collaborations that integrate mathematical modelling and directed experiments to answer basic biological questions.

The majority of my research explores the mechanisms and principles of development in plants and animals. Living systems exhibit a remarkable combination of robust behaviour and adaptive capacity. Robust and reliable development and behaviour are essential for long-term stability (and the very notion of biological individuals and species), while constant adaptation to environmental conditions is essential for survival and evolution.

Dynamics forms the central theme of my research. Living systems are fundamentally dynamic, and it is the origin and properties of these dynamics that we seek to understand in biology. Genetics plays a central role, but does not itself specify dynamic behaviour. Powerful modern experimental techniques generate data on the genetic and molecular constitutions of organisms; a key challenge is to use these effectively static data to understand the dynamical logic of life.

Cells, tissues and organisms are in constant interaction with their environments. They are, in effect, constantly processing environmental information through their internal dynamic state; in turn this state is communicated to other cells, tissues and organisms. I seek to understand how this processing and communication result in coordinated dynamic processes and structures at the level of cells and tissues.

I work with a number of different experimental systems, using approaches based on Boolean networks, deterministic differential equations (ordinary, partial and delay), and stochastic models. My choice of modelling approach is determined by the nature of the system, of the data available, and, most importantly, on the question being asked. 

My research is currently funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Previous research has been funded by the  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the European Union, the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), the Royal Society, the University of Sheffield (J. G. Graves Fellowship) and the Wellcome Trust.

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