Dr James Cantley is an RD Lawrence Fellow, funded by Diabetes UK, a Research Fellow at Wolfson College and a Lecturer in Medicine at Christ Church, all at the University of Oxford. His current research interests revolve around the beta cell: how insulin secretory capacity is matched to demand during health and obesity, and how this fails during type 2 diabetes. James collaborates with several other research groups including Prof. Heidi De Wet (DPAG), Prof. Helen Christian (DPAG), Dr. Reshma Ramracheya and Prof. Patrik Rorsman (OCDEM, Oxford). James undertook his doctoral studies in the lab of Prof. Dominic Withers at University College London, where he investigated the molecular control of beta cell function by oxygen sensing and insulin signalling pathways. He received his PhD in 2007 and went on to a postdoctoral position at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, where he worked in the lab of Prof. Trevor Biden, and developed his interests in lipid signalling processes in the beta cell. Whilst in Australia James held two consecutive postdoctoral fellowships enabling him to develop his own research direction. James returned to the UK in 2013 to take up his current position as group leader within the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford. James is a co-founding principal investigator of OxStem Beta.