- Regulation of flower development in Arabidopsis thaliana
- Molecular genetic analysis of continuous (quantitative) developmental traits
- Evolutionary developmental biology (e.g. origins of metazoans; molluscs and spiralians, chordates)
- Understanding the evolutionary origin of animal multicellularity through the study of the sponge genome and development
- How to make a sea shell: molecular genetic basis of patterning and biofabrication of molluscan and other animal skeletons
- How marine invertebrate larvae sense and respond to their environment: molecules to populations to ecology (with Dr S. Degnan and A/Prof G. Skilleter)
- *Marine evolutionary and ecological functional genomics (e.g. larval settlement and metamorphosis; molecular construction of sea shells and other biominerals; aquaculture traits)
- *Marine larval ecology (with Dr Greg Skilleter)
- The development of dermal glands in wild type and mutant Drosophila
- Nervous system development in Drosophila
- The regulation of light output by glow-worms
- The neurobiology of foraging behaviour in flies
- The development of the venom gland of honeybees
* Research projects for PhD/MPhil students only