Joseph Foon Yoong Hoh is a retired Reader in Physiology at the University of Sydney. He graduated with BSc (Med) and MBBS from the University of Sydney, PhD from the Australian National University and DSc from the University of Sydney. His initial research was on the mechanical properties of fast and slow muscles. Convinced that the underlying basis of their mechanical differences lies in their myosin structure, he developed a technique of electrophoretically separating intact myosin isoforms in polyacrylamide gel. This enabled him to elucidate the subunit structures of atrial and ventricular and skeletal myosin isoforms. He studied myosin isoform expression and regulation in fibres of cardiac, limb, extraocular, masticatory and laryngeal muscles using electrophoresis, immunohistochemistry, mechanical analysis, nerve cross-union, heterotopic muscle transplantations, electrical stimulation and manipulation of thyroid hormone levels. Based on some of these results, he developed the concept of (1) muscle allotype, whereby the repertoire for myosin expression is determined by the myogenic cell lineage giving rise to the muscle and (2) fibre ontotype, by which myosin expression repertoire of a mature fibre in responses to regulatory influences is determined by the type of myotube it originates from. He is a member of the Australian Physiological Society.