Professor Hari Hundal

The research programme in the Hundal lab is aimed at defining the intracellular signalling processes that regulate uptake, storage and metabolism of nutrients (e.g. glucose, fatty acids and amino acids) with particular focus on how cells sense nutrient availability and how nutrient over-load can induce metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and diabetes. More recently, the Hundal lab has also opened up a new and exciting area of study that principally aims to develop our understanding of the action of a class of compounds, termed cannabinoids, in peripheral tissues such as skeletal muscle. Cannabinoids are present in cannabis, but our bodies naturally create cannabinoid-like chemicals, known as endocannabinoids that lock-on to protein molecules found on the surface of cells called cannabinoid receptors (i.e. CB1 and CB2).  Pathological over-activation of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a feature of obesity and diabetes and one that we have recently discovered to be upregulated during aging and to influence insulin signalling and energy metabolism in skeletal muscle.  For more detail and information of our research in the above areas please visit the research page on the Hundal Lab website. 

I am involved in the delivery and management of taught modules to undergraduate students at Level 3 and Level 4 taking degrees within our Biomedical Sciences teaching programme.

• BS31013 - Biomembranes
• BS31019 - Regulatory Physiology and Pharmacology
• BS42014 – Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Dysfunction