 His early work in New Zealand was devoted to the delineation of metabolic pathways of "Mycobacteria", relatives of the tuberculosis bacterium.He used the innovative approach of studying cell extracts which gave a clearer picture of bacterial metabolic pathways than whole cells, then currently in use (Edson, 1951).In the 1950s, he and his students turned their attention to the metabolism of the polyols (sugar alcohols).