Welcome to the Freeman lab

Cell biology of signalling

The main questions we study are what cellular mechanisms regulate cell signalling, and how does that signalling control biological functions in health and disease?

Research in the Freeman lab focuses on the cell biology of signalling. In recent years our main efforts have been on the rhomboid-like clan of intramembrane proteases and their inactive relatives. These proteins control functions as diverse as growth factor signalling, inflammation, cellular quality control, mitochondrial function, and parasite invasion of host cells; they are correspondingly implicated in many human diseases.

We also have an interest in using Drosophila genetics to investigate conserved human proteins of unknown function.

Our long-term goal is to use cellular models and model organisms to understand the cellular processes that underlie human disease.

We are members of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, which is in Oxford, UK.