Dr Cuffe is a teaching and research academic and head of the placental endocrinology laboratory at the University of Queensland. He is internationally recognised for his research looking at the complex relationships between maternal hormones, placental dysfunction and adverse fetal outcomes. His PhD focused on using mouse studies to investigate the role of the placenta in mediating maternal glucocorticoid induced programmed offspring disease. Since this time, Dr Cuffe had headed projects focused on understanding the role of placental hormones in mediating gestational diabetes mellitus, fetal growth restriction and programmed disease in offspring as well understanding how specific micronutrients mediate endocrine disorders in pregnancy. Most recently Dr Cuffe has undertaken several projects focused on understanding how various thyroid parameters impact pregnancy outcomes. He has established novel rat models of thyroid autoimmunity to examine how different thyroid antibodies may be contributing to placental dysfunction.