Steven Watterson

Research Interests

My work has covered two broad themes: developing novel models of immune and metabolic pathway function and introducing new mathematical tools to the analysis of cell behavior. In the former, I have worked to better understand the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway and its regulation with a view to both improving intervention strategies for future cardiovascular therapies and exploring its role in innate immunity. The cholesterol biosynthesis pathway is known to be regulated as part of the innate immune response and this occurs in a mode fundamentally different to the regulation that occurs in current pharmaceutical therapies. This presents us with the opportunity to learn from nature how to best maximise the efficacy and minimise the off-target effects of intervention. Cholesterol metabolism plays a role in atherosclerosis, a dynamical process that is generally poorly understood. I am interested in using integrative approaches to improve our understanding of something that is of vital importance to human health. My second interest is in bringing mathematical tools into the study of pathways from theoretical physics. I am currently developing algebraic topology tools for classifying and analyzing pathway structures and multivalued logic as an optimal framework with minimal experimental demands for systems such as innate immunity and the body clock. I am also exploring the potential for field theory methods as a more fundamental and insightful representation of pathway structure.