Dr Isabel Christie

BSc, MSc, MRes, PhD, AHEA

Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health

Wellcome Trust Career Development Researcher

Isabel Christie
Profile picture of Isabel Christie
i.christie@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Isabel Christie
Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health
The Medical School
Beech Hill Road
Sheffield
S10 2RX
Research interests

Reductions in brain blood flow are the earliest biomarker of cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. Brain perfusion declines during normal ageing (Christie et al. 2022) and animal research shows that during normal cognition, some regions of the brain do not receive enough oxygen (Beinlich et al. 2024). I believe oxygen is the rate-limiting factor for neuronal computation.

While much of my previous work has focused on how astrocytes regulate oxygen homeostasis in the brain, my future work will be focused on translational imaging methods. I intend to quantify when oxygen insufficiency occurs in middle age and ask why and when this becomes problematic for cognition. I aim to generate a better understanding of the underlying physiology detected by hyperpolarised xenon in the brain. Since a gas contrast agent is used, I propose that this method could shed light on changes in gas exchange in the brain that occur during ageing.

The physiological sensitivity of the method is unclear, so my research also hopes to assess the sensitivity of hyperpolarised xenon to changes in brain blood flow and gas exchange. 

Grants

Wellcome Trust Career Development Award for research into Hyperpolarised 129Xe Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopic Brain Oximetry - £1,891,988

Teaching interests

Neuroimaging methods, physiology of autoregulation and the dynamic control of brain blood flow by astrocytes.

Professional activities and memberships

Founder of the UK Glia Network

Member of the Physiological Society