He obtained his PhD from McMaster University in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Rudnicki. He went on to do postdoctoral research with Bruce Spiegelman at Harvard Medical School. There, he identified PRDM16 as a dominant driver of brown fat cell differentiation and discovered that brown fat and muscle originate from a common lineage during development. His current research program continues to focus on the molecular mechanisms that control the biology of adipose tissues and on the role of brown fat in metabolic disease.