Christine Foyer


Christine Helen Foyer is professor of plant science at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK where she also directs the Human Health and Food Security Project in sub-Saharan Africa in the Africa Laboratory. She has published and co-authored many papers on related subjects.
Foyer's name is included in the "Foyer–Halliwell–Asada" pathway, a cellular process of hydrogen peroxide metabolism in plants and animals and named for the three principal discoverers.

Education

Foyer attended Portsmouth Polytechnic from 1971–74, achieving a BSc with Class II, Division I Honours in Biology.
From 1974–77 she attended the Department of Biochemistry, King's College London where she completed her PhD. During this time Foyer also attended a course on immunology at Chelsea College, London.
In 1998 Foyer was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Biology.

Work

Foyer researches plant growth regulation and development under optimal circumstances and in conditions of stress. Her work has a special focus on how cellular reduction/oxidation, homeostasis and signalling interact with phytohormone–mediated pathways, particularly involving abscisic acid, auxin and strigolactones. Her research is centered on ascorbate and glutathione as key regulators of plant responses to stress and on how redox processes associated with primary metabolism particularly photosynthesis and respiration regulate gene expression.
The department addresses research problems of intrinsic scientific interest but is always mindful of the needs of agriculture and food security. In addition to undertaking fundamental studies on model plant species such as arabidopsis thaliana, research in the Foyer lab includes work which relates the research findings, particularly in relation to enhancing stress tolerance, to crop species such as soybean, maize and barley.

Selected publications

;Books
;Research articles