Finding new ways to get healthy

Professor Matthew Watt leads an innovative research program that seeks to identify how defects of lipid metabolism and inter-tissue communication cause obesity-related disorders, and to use this information to discover novel targets that can be transitioned to clinical therapeutics. His team’s research strategy encompasses two major streams:

(1) Target identification- where protein expression is modulated in cultured cells and combined with discovery-based transcriptomic, proteomic and lipidomic approaches with targeted functional cell biology to unravel the regulation of biological functions (metabolism, endocrine function, energy metabolism).

(2) In vivo validation- involves the utilisation of mouse metabolic phenotyping and biochemical assessment of unique transgenic murine models to understand integrative biology systems. This is followed by pre-clinical studies in human tissues to demonstrate potential therapeutic efficacy.

Professor Watt has authored >120 peer-reviewed manuscripts and contributes to the discipline through his roles as National Secretary of the Australian Physiological Society and as a reviewing editor of the American Journal of Physiology (Endocrinology & Metabolism).