In 1983 he discovered one of the most important regulatory mechanisms in animal cells, namely the ubiquitous calcium releasing effect of the small water soluble molecule inositol trisphosphate (IP3). The IP3 – calcium releasing pathway is nowadays featured in all textbooks of physiology and biochemistry.

Although Mike was an accomplished and sophisticated experimentalist in his early years, his main interest – after his great discovery – became increasingly focussed on the ‘big picture’ of intracellular calcium signalling. He spent by far the major part of his working life in Cambridge where he was Head of Cell Signalling until his retirement in 2003.