John Hamilton has made significant molecular and translational contributions to the field of inflammation. He has shown how colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) control macrophage lineage numbers and function in inflammation, mainly in the contexts of arthritic disease and inflammation-associated pain. He discovered the role of CSFs in inflammation, pioneered cell signalling studies for the CSFs, and progressed the biology of the CSFs to encourage and facilitate several successful international clinical trials with antagonists to granulocyte-macrophage CSFs in arthritis and asthma.