Christian, Professor Helen

Professor

Helen Christian

Associate Professor in Medical Sciences and Tutorial Fellow
Deputy Head of Department
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics

Email: helen.christian@dpag.ox.ac.uk

Academic Background

Helen Christian gained a degree in Pharmacology in 1993 (University of Edinburgh) and a doctorate in Pharmacology in 1997 (University of London). She came to the Department of Human Anatomy, Oxford in 1996 funded by a one year post-doctoral fellowship before taking up a Departmental Lectureship in Human Anatomy in 1997. Since 2000 she has been a University Lecturer in Biomedicine and Fellow of St Anne’s College. She was awarded a University of Oxford Teaching Excellence Award in 2010 and an OxTalent award for innovative teaching in 2011.

Research

Helen Christian’s research interests are in the mechanisms of steroid hormone regulation of the pituitary gland, in particular the role of Annexin 1.  The Annexins are a well conserved super-family of structurally related Ca2+ – and phospholipids-binding proteins with wide-ranging functions in health and disease.  Annexin 1 is a 37kD protein that is induced by glucocorticoids and mediates glucocorticoid action within the host defence and neuroendocrine systems.

A list of publications is available here.

Teaching