University of Adelaide

Hugh looks at what happens when metals enter a living organism, and uses new technologies, often synchrotron-based, to identify the location of metals and their chemical form in cells and tissues. With this information he hopes to determine precisely what metals are doing in the body, good or bad, and their roles in diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

One of Hugh’s current goals is to understand, from a molecular perspective, the reduced incidence of cancers in people who have increased dietary intake of certain selenium compounds.